Blockchain and cryptocurrencies have come a long way from where they started in 2009. The industry has grown to become a market worth more than $350 billion with numerous cryptocurrencies recording daily trade volume of billions.
However, as the market continues to grow, so does the list of blights that have continued to plague the industry and blemish its reputation. According to a recent report, crypto hacks have caused a loss of more than $13 billions across 289 hack events.
Crypto hacks
According to a report by blockchain security company Slowmist, the total sum lost to blockchain hackers is around $13.04 billion. The firm collected and analyzed the data regarding blockchain networks and cryptocurrencies across the past decade as well as any event related to them.
The firm discovered that EOS DApps suffered 115 hack events, the highest for any blockchain. However, the funds lost in those attacks were relatively lower compared to exchange hacks, and wallet hacks.
The EOS Dapp hacks caused the loss of nearly $10 million. Although not a small figure, the sum is insignificant when compared to funds lost via wallet and exchange hacks.
Exchange hacks caused a loss of $4.5 billion while wallet hacks resulted in $7.1 billion being lost to the attackers. Meanwhile, Ethereum DApp or ERC-20 hacks caused a loss of $142 million.
Precautions
While blockchain networks advertise on the basis of providing robust securities, the same cannot be said about the solutions built on them. From Ethereum’s decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) hack to the 2016 Bitfinex breach, crypto hacks have reminded us that neither exchanges nor the smart contracts deployed on the network are 100 percent secure.
As such it is necessary to remain vigilant regarding your finances. It is suggested that investors should keep their crypto assets on hardware wallets and store the seed phrase offline in secure places.
