According to a report by Immunefi, crypto hackers have stolen over $1.2 billion in digital assets from January to August 2024, marking a 15.5% increase compared to the same period in 2023.

As the crypto industry matures, malicious actors within the ecosystem are becoming increasingly sophisticated in swindling user funds. The latest report by Immunefi reveals that more than $1.2 billion worth of digital assets were lost to hacks and rug pulls in 2024 year-to-date (YTD) across 154 specific incidents.

Compared to January to August 2023, when the total value of funds lost to hacks and rug pulls was slightly more than $1.04 billion, the industry witnessed a 15.5% surge in funds lost to crypto hacks during the same period in 2024.

However, looking at month-over-month (MoM) data reveals that August 2024 experienced the lowest losses YTD, with $15 million lost to hacks and fraud across five specific incidents. Compared to July 2024 which saw over $269 million in stolen user funds, losses in August 2024 are 94.5% down.

It’s worth mentioning that July 2024 included a significant hack of the leading Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX, an incident single-handedly responsible for $235 million in stolen funds.

When examining year-over-year (YoY) data, August 2024’s loss was 38% lower compared to August 2023, when the registered losses were slightly over $24.5 million.

August 2024’s losses were primarily driven by security breaches in two specific projects – gaming-focused blockchain project Ronin Network, with a loss of $12 million, and DeFi protocol Nexera, which experienced a loss of $1.5 million in crypto assets. Other affected platforms include VOW, Convergence Finance, and iVest DAO, losing $1.2 million, $210,000, and $172,000, respectively.

Notably, decentralized finance (DeFi) incidents were responsible for 100% of the total volume of funds lost in August 2024, in contrast to losses in July 2024, when the centralized finance (CeFi) platform WazirX fell victim to a hack. Additionally, no frauds were reported in August 2024, indicating that all funds lost during the month were due to hacks.

While recent trends suggest that security measures deployed by industry players may be improving, concerns persist regarding the high volume of user funds stolen across different smart contract platforms with varying security measures. 

For instance, in 2023, Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Optimism saw one of its DeFi protocols Exactly lose $12 million in user funds. 

Most recently, Rho Markets, a DeFi lending protocol powered by another Ethereum layer 2 solution Scroll, had an unsettling experience with gray hat hackers who temporarily extracted digital assets worth $7.6 million before returning them, but with the condition that the protocol states that it was not an exploit or a hack but rather lax security measures on their end.

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