During the first quarter of the year, the crypto industry witnessed a decrease in hacking losses, amounting to $336.3 million, marking a decline of 23.1% compared to the previous year.
As outlined in the Immunefi report, crypto projects encountered losses exceeding $321 million due to 46 hacking incidents and 15 fraudulent activities within the first three months of 2024.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms emerged as primary targets for hackers, contributing to 100% of losses in the crypto industry.
Immunefi CEO Mitchell Amador emphasized the susceptibility of DeFi to private key compromises, underlining the critical importance of securing both code and protocol infrastructure:
“While it’s positive that overall losses have decreased, it’s essential to note that DeFi faced significant challenges, accounting for 100% of total losses in Q1 2024. Particularly, the ecosystem witnessed a considerable volume of losses due to private key compromises, emphasizing the critical need to secure both code and protocol infrastructure.”
The number of hacker attacks decreased by 17.5% in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. Ethereum (ETH) network was the most targeted, with 33 incidents reported, followed by BNB Chain (BNB) blockchain, which suffered 14 attacks. Together, Ethereum and BNB Chain accounted for over 73% of the total lost funds.
Among the notable hacks were those targeting the Orbit Bridge and the Munchables web3 gaming platform, resulting in losses of over $81 million and nearly $63 million, respectively. PlayDapp and FixedFloat were also victimized, losing $32 million and $26 million, respectively.
Hacking remained the predominant method of crypto theft, contributing to 95.6% of total losses, while fraud accounted for only 4.4%. Fraud cases decreased by 22.4% over the past 12 months.
In 2023, hackers siphoned $19 million from crypto projects, whereas this year, the amount reduced to $14 million. However, only $73 million of the stolen funds were recovered this year, constituting 22% of the total losses.
It’s noteworthy that the centralized finance (CeFi) sector reported zero losses in the first three months of 2024, in contrast to the $1.8 million lost during the same period last year.
