Crypto investors may be crying losses from their investments amid the general downtrend in the market. However, hackers are winning in the present market condition, as blockchain security firm PeckShield recently reported that the value of cryptocurrencies stolen so far in 2022 has already surpassed last year’s record.
$1.57 billion lost to hackers since 2022
According to the blockchain security company, hackers have already stolen about $1.57 billion just four months into 2022. Hackers reportedly bagged about $1.55 billion from exploiting decentralized applications (dApps) throughout the months of 2021. The current losses this year represents a 1.29% increase from the record in 2021, and DeFi might likely see more losses this year.
PeckShield said Beanstalk Farms’ exploit on 17th April 2022 was the largest in losses this year. However, there is “Ronin Network,” which lost $625 million worth of cryptocurrencies in a single attack. Ronin is an Ethereum-linked sidechain that powers the popular blockchain game Axie Infinity from Sky Mavis.
Last week, crypto exchange Binance intercepted and recovered $5.8 million of Ronin’s stolen funds. No other recovery has been reported since the attack. On 22nd April 2022, US authorities said that North Korea’s hacking group Lazarus Group was behind the Ronin Network exploit. They have been using Tornado Cash as a channel to withdraw the stolen funds and avoid detection.
DeFi attacks
The majority of the hacks seem to have occurred in April. More recently, DeFi platforms Rari Capital and Fei Protocol reported a total of about $80 million after hackers exploited a bug in the Fuse protocol, which was used by both platforms. On 1st May, Fei Protocol offered the hackers a $10 million bug bounty if they agreed to return the stolen assets.
Two days before the Fei Protocol’s incident, Deus Finance was hacked for $13 million in crypto, marking its second exploit for the year.
