Crypto Loses $1.2 Billion To Hacks And Rug Pulls In First Eight Months, Report Says

Updated: 01 September 2023

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The crypto industry lost $1.2 billion to hacks and rug pulls in the first eights months via 211 incidents, says a new report.

Hacks accounted for a substantial 67.7% of the losses, while fraud was responsible for the remaining 32.3%, said the report by Immunefi, which calls itself a bug bounty platform for Web 3 and smart contract security.

Crypto Losses Reached $23 Million in August

August saw losses of more than $23 million, significantly down on more than $320 million in July, the report said. Hacks continued to be the predominant cause of losses in August, accounting for almost $16 million, it said. Fraud accounted for the remainder across four incidents.

Since its launch in early August, Coinbase-backed Base protocol has witnessed losses across four projects, sharing the top slots among targeted chains with Ethereum and BNB Chain, the report said.

Ethereum took the hardest hits, experiencing five separate incidents that made up 24% of the total losses among these targeted chains. Meanwhile, Base and BNB Chain each encountered four incidents, contributing to 19% of the losses individually.

Ethereum, Base, and BNB Chain collectively represented over half of the losses in August. Arbitrum, Solana, and Avalanche experienced one incident each, contributing 4.8% each to the total losses.

Other chains, including Fantom and Linea, represented 14.3% of the total chain incidents, each with a single incident to their name.

All the losses in August came via 17 incidents against decentralized finance (Defi) platforms while Centralized Finance (CeFi) platforms held strong, the report said.

Source: Immunefi

DeFi Platforms Hit by Major Attacks

There were attacks on two decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms Exactly and Harbor on Aug. 18. These attacks were reported by blockchain security companies DeDotFi and PeckShield.

In the first attack on Exactly Protocol, the hackers stole 4,323.6 Ether (ETH), which was worth nearly $7.3 million at that time. They then moved 1,490 ETH through the Across Protocol and 2,832.92 ETH to the Ethereum network using the Optimism Bridge.

Update: After a thorough review of the Exactly Protocol Hack, we have concluded that the total of stolen amount up to date is ~$7.2M (4323.6 $ETH)

Eventually, they bridged ~1490 $ETH, using Across Protocol, and 2,832.92 $ETH to Ethereum via Optimism Bridge:… https://t.co/s61ai1OEMd

— De.Fi 🛡️ Web3 Antivirus (@DeDotFiSecurity) August 18, 2023

In a separate incident, the interchain stablecoin protocol Harbor was also attacked. This resulted in losses from its stablecoin creation and various vaults that held stOSMO, LUNA, and WMATIC.

The exact amount stolen is still unknown, and Harbor is actively trying to track the stolen funds and assess the full extent of the losses.