2025-1-31 20:46 |
Cryptocurrency hacks surged over ninefold in January, with centralized platforms bearing the brunt of the attacks.
Over $73 million was stolen from the cryptocurrency sector across 19 individual incidents, marking a notable hike from $3.8 million lost in December according to Immunefi’s January report.
Although the number represents a nine-fold it also reflects a 44% drop compared to January last year, when losses exceeded $133 million.
Interestingly, no cases of fraud were reported in January.
Centralised finance platforms were the biggest losers accounting for 93% of the total stolen funds, with a single exchange breach contributing the majority of the losses.
Most of the losses stemmed from one single incident, with the attack on Singapore-based exchange Phemex accounting for $69 million of the total $73 million stolen in January.
Meanwhile, decentralized finance platforms faced smaller but more frequent exploits, collectively losing $4.8 million across 18 incidents.
The most notable was a $2.5 million attack on Moby Trade, alongside smaller breaches across several other protocols.
It must be noted that a white hat hacker was able to recover roughly $1.5 million.
BNB chain leadsIn terms of blockchain networks, BNB Chain led the pack as the most targeted network, suffering 10 attacks and accounting for half of January’s onchain losses.
Ethereum followed at a distant second, making up 25% of the total, while Arbitrum, Base, and Optimism each saw fewer incidents.
Only three other chains reported incidents—Ethereum layer 2 networks Base and Arbitrum suffering two attacks each, along with Optimism chain with a single incident.
Attack vectorsIn comments to the media, Immunefi CEO Mitchell Amador warned that CeFi platforms will continue to remain the primary targets for hackers in 2025.
According to Amador, private key compromises are the biggest risks, as they allow attackers to gain full access to funds with a single breach.
He noted that while CeFi does not experience the highest number of successful attacks, breaches tend to result in catastrophic losses when they occur.
Centralized platforms tend to have significantly bigger user bases especially due to their ease of use, regulatory compliance, and customer support.
Unlike decentralized platforms, which require users to manage their private keys and interact with complex smart contracts, CeFi platforms offer a more user-friendly experience with custodial services, making it more welcoming even for non-tech-savvy individuals.
This acts as a double-edged sword as while it increases adoption it also concentrates vast amounts of user funds in a few centralized entities, making them lucrative targets for hackers.
This is why private key compromises pose such a severe threat as a compromised key allows an attacker to withdraw enormous amounts of funds leading to bigger losses.
Losses from private key dominated 2024As previously reported by Invezz, roughly 75% of attacks in 2024 stemmed from weak access controls and compromised keys.
This marked a significant jump from the previous year where private key losses accounted for roughly 50% of all attacks.
Over $2.3 billion was lost due to hacks in 2024 with CeFi accounting for the most losses.
A separate report put total losses at over $3 billion with hacks accounting for 70% of all incidents.
The post Crypto hacks surge 9x in January 2025 as CeFi remains the prime target appeared first on Invezz
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