Despite the long crypto bear market and the sudden collapse of exchange platforms that made investors lose billions of dollars in funds, new data from the team at Atlas VPN revealed that crypto hackers stole cryptocurrencies valued at over $3.5 billion in 2022 alone.
The information is based on statistics given by Slowmist Hacked, a security team that compiles data on publicly known cybercrime on blockchain projects. It is worth noting that the conversion rate of certain crypto at the time of a hack occurrence was used to estimate the financial losses.
It can be observed from the data that the first quarter of 2022 recorded the highest financial loss from crypto hacks with a value of $1,277,288,221, while the third quarter recorded the least value of $482,645,169.
The report highlighted a number of crypto hacks that contributed to the financial loss. Some of the hacks include the loss of about $1.2 billion worth of crypto in about 16 events, in Blockchain bridges. The Solana ecosystem was also reported to have recorded a huge loss of about $196 million.
Furthermore, the Non-Fungible token (NFT) ecosystem also recorded about 57 scams in the space that led to a loss of nearly $90 million.
While the loss of funds through crypto hacks in 2022 recorded a huge figure, the month of December was reported to have seen the least amount of crypto theft, with a total loss of $62.2 million from 23 major attacks.
The Rise of Crypto Hacks in the Industry
Crypto hacks have become more prevalent for a number of reasons. One explanation is that cryptocurrencies have a high market value, which makes them a desirable target for hackers.
Furthermore, a lot of cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets do not yet have the same level of security safeguards in place as conventional financial institutions, leaving them open to attacks.
Finally, given the decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies, it may be challenging, but not impossible, to identify the perpetrator of a hack or retrieve lost money.
While crypto hacks seem to be on the rise, regulators in the industry are also making efforts to ensure hackers are punished when caught. For instance, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), recently filed an independent complaint against Avraham Mayer Eisenberg, renowned as the Mango Markets exploiter.
The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) has also launched an investigation into the FTX hack.
