Crypto suffered 153% YoY increase in hacks and scams in Q3: Immunefi
Crypto and Web3 projects suffered a 153% increase in attack incidents from July to September 2023 compared to the same period in 2022, according to a report from blockchain security platform Immunefi. In Q3 2022, there were a total of 30 attack incidents. But in Q3 2023, this number swelled to 76. Nearly $686 million was lost in the recent quarter.
The highest loss came from the Mixin hack of September 25, which drained approximately $200 million. The Multichain hack was the second-worst attack of the quarter, resulting in over $126 million in losses that have still not been recovered. In addition to these incidents, the Lazarus Group drained over $208 million worth of crypto through multiple attacks, including hacks of centralized services CoinEx, Alphapo, Stake, and Coinspaid. The Lazarus Group was responsible for 30% of all stolen crypto in Q3, the report stated.
Related: Exclusive: Hackers selling discounted tokens linked to CoinEx, Stake hacks
A small portion of Q3 attacks consisted of rug pulls and other scams. Only $23 million, or 3.3% of total losses, came from these types of incidents, whereas the remaining 96.7% came from hacks or exploits. Overall, monetary losses from scams in Q3 decreased by 23.9% compared to Q3 2022.
The report stated that decentralized finance (DeFi) hacks accounted for 72.9% of total losses, while centralized services accounted for only 27.1% of exploit losses. Immunefi did not state how they defined “decentralized” versus “centralized” services.
The two networks most targeted by hackers and scammers were Ethereum and BNB Chain. Ethereum represented 42.7% of losses, while BNB Chain represented 30.5%. Base and Optimism were the third and fourth most popular networks for attackers to
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