Crypto attacks intensify although money stolen falls

Immunefi has taken a look at recent attacks on the crypto industry, reporting an increase in the overall numbers.

Crypto hacks and attacks have persisted with renewed zeal in 2023, according to research company Immunefi.

The firm, which has a particular emphasis on crypto security, said that in the past quarter alone, there have been 73 attacks on crypto entities, compared to 25 during the same period last year.

However, the increase in the frequency of attacks does not mean that more money is being lost to attacks.

According to Immunefi, the total lost is 64.4% lower, but this can also be ascribed to a cryptocurrency market that has shrunk in the past few months.

Another firm, PeckShield, reported that $211.5m had been lost to 26 hacking attacks in March alone.

Meanwhile, Immunefi has conducted its own research based on publicly available data. This analysis helped the company pinpoint some of the weak links in the crypto sector.

It found that 73.3% of all rugs pulls, for example, happen on the BNB Chain. This means that you are statistically more likely to be ripped off by a project if it’s based on the BNB Chain.

Rug pulls themselves refer to the practice of launching a project, collecting funding, and then disappearing with the funding without delivering on the project’s goals.

“BNB Chain still has a serious issue with developers using forked code”, Immunefi team leader Adrian Hetman said. Essentially, this points to a deeper lack of security or security-first practices within the chain, Hetman cautions.

“That's why we continue to see the biggest number of exploits and rug pulls in this ecosystem”, he added in the report.

Then again, hacks are the most pernicious sort of attack, causing 95.7% of all losses compared to just 4.3% of rug pulls, scams, and fraud.

There are some reasons for optimism as well, as projects are now doubling down on security, as they understand that rapid expansion without the necessary safeguards usually backfire.

This is what happened with Euler Finance recently, with the protocol attacked with a “flash loan” hack which left the project short of $200m. Euler Finance was lucky, as the hacker felt contrite and returned the money.

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Written by Barney

Co-founder

Barney is co-founder of CryptoGamblingNews.com. When not at work he can usually be found behind a Nikon. He's won numerous international competitions for his photography and volunteers as a content creator for aid organisations in Africa.

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