Over the past few years, cryptocurrency hacking has become a widespread and formidable threat, resulting in billions of dollars being stolen from crypto platforms and exposing vulnerabilities in the ecosystem. In last year’s Crypto Crime Report, 2022 was the biggest year for crypto theft to date, with $3.7 billion stolen. However, in 2023, stolen funds decreased by approximately 54.3% to $1.7 billion, but the number of individual hacking incidents increased from 219 in 2022 to 231 in 2023.
The hacking of DeFi protocols led to a significant increase in the number of stolen cryptocurrencies in 2021 and 2022; cybercriminals stole over $3.1 billion from DeFi hacks in 2022. However, in 2023, computer hackers only stole $1.1 billion from DeFi protocols. This represents a 63.7% decrease in the total value of funds stolen from DeFi platforms compared to the previous year.
Throughout 2023, there were still several major attacks on significant DeFi protocols. For example, in March, Euler Finance, a borrowing and lending protocol on Ethereum, experienced a flash loan attack that resulted in a loss of approximately $197 million. In July 2023, there were 33 attacks, including the theft of $73.5 million from Curve Finance (the highest number for any month).
Similarly, in September and November 2023, there were several major attacks on both DeFi and CeFi platforms: Mixin Network ($200 million), CoinEx ($43 million), Poloniex Exchange ($130 million), HTX ($113.3 million), and Kyber Network ($54.7 million).
