Crypto Hackers Stole $266M in July Across 16 Breaches: PeckShield
The crypto sector faced significant losses in July as hackers stole approximately $266 million through 16 separate breaches.
Among the most notable incidents was the July 18 attack on Indian crypto exchange WazirX, which accounted for over $230 million, or 86.4%, of the month’s total losses.
Some independent investigations have attributed the WazirX hack to North Korean cybercriminals.
According to blockchain security firm PeckShield, the stolen WazirX funds, amounting to 61,154 Ether, remain under the hackers’ control as of August 1.
Other significant victims of July’s crypto hacks included algorithmic protocol Compound Finance, which lost $24 million, bridging protocol Li.Fi ($10 million), decentralized AI protocol Bittensor, and liquidity provider Rho Markets, each losing $8 million.
In many instances, the stolen funds were moved to the cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash, a technique used by hackers to obscure the origin of the funds and evade detection.
In contrast to July, June saw a lower loss of $176 million spread across approximately 20 incidents, highlighting a sharp increase in the value of stolen assets in just one month.
A notable incident at the end of July involved the Terra blockchain, which temporarily halted operations at block height 11430400 following a hack that resulted in the theft of $6 million.
The attacker exploited a known vulnerability to steal 60 million ASTRO tokens, 500,000 USD, 3.5 million USD Coin, and 2.7 Bitcoin.
Terra developers quickly responded with an emergency chain upgrade, resuming block production on the same day.
“Validators holding over 67% of the voting power on Terra have upgraded their nodes to prevent the exploit from recurring. More validators are expected to upgrade soon,” an
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