In January 2023, the crypto market had a positive start after a challenging 2022. Data from PeckShield, a blockchain security firm, shows a significant decrease in losses from crypto exploits compared to the previous year.
However, in August 2023, malicious attackers operating in the crypto space succeeded in stealing over $45 million worth of digital assets from unsuspecting victims. The cumulative losses for the year reached a significant $997 million, according to the report by the blockchain security firm CertiK. If we talk about August month, we observe that $26 million vanished due to exit scams, $6.4 million vanished in flash loan attacks, and $13.5 million disappeared through exploits.
Notable incidents contributing to these losses included the Zunami Protocol attack, which drained $2.2 million from victims, the Exactly Protocol exploit with a hefty $7.3 million loss, and the PEPE coin withdrawal incident, which inflicted a substantial $13.2 million in damages.
Zooming out to the broader picture of 2023, we see a landscape ruined by losses, with almost $997 million lost across various crypto-related issues. This includes $261 million attributed to flash loan attacks, $137 million to exit scams, and a staggering $596 million to exploits.
It’s worth noting that while the August losses remain significant, they represent a marked decrease compared to the previous month. Recently, in a report by Todayq News on August 8, 2023, the DeFi sector had big problems, with losses of almost $390 million due to hacks on platforms like Arcadia Finance, Curve Finance, Multichain, and more. This made the total losses in the DeFi space exceed $77 billion.
Ethereum was hit the hardest, losing $350 million in 36 attacks. Multichain had the biggest single-case loss of $231 million because of an access control problem. Adding another layer of complexity, Multichain, facing a litany of challenges, officially halted its operations on July 14.
The reasons reported included a lack of funding to sustain operations and the inability to access alternative sources of information. Compounding the issues, the CEO’s arrest by Chinese authorities left the project in turmoil.