Half a Billion Was Lost to Crypto Hacks and Fraud in Q2, States Immunefi

Crypto bug bounty platform Immunefi estimates $509 million was lost to hacks and fraud during Q2, a 91% increase from the same time frame this past year.

The report noted that in May 2024, the experienced its greatest losses up to now, amounting to $107 million. In comparison, June saw home loan business losses to $78 million across 12 different scenarios, marking a 27% reduce the $107 million lost in June 2023.

Japanese centralized exchange DMM Bitcoin endured probably the most in this quarter. The exchange lost a whopping $305 million to online hackers, however it has since put measures in position to compensate customers.

Others, like BtcTurk, Hedgey, Lykke, Gala Games, and SonneFinance, had their great amount of exploits. Their losses totaled $164.two million.

Centralized crypto banking institutions were probably the most targeted, comprising two-thirds of effective attacks, based on the Immunefi report.

Elegance Dees, a cybersecurity business analyst at Resonance Security, told Decrypt that online hackers frequently target centralized entities since they’re weaker to hacks because of their extensive asset pools and centralized storage.

“Firstly, CEFi entities frequently manage bigger pools of assets when compared with DeFi platforms. This will make them more profitable targets for online hackers searching to maximise their returns from one attack,” she stated.

Dees added that centralized entities are alluring targets for online hackers simply because they use centralized repositories, wallets, private key management, and safety measures.

“This centralization can make single points of failure,” she added, “which makes it potentially simpler for online hackers to gain access to a lot of funds via a single breach.”

Dees also stated the side-effect of regulatory scrutiny on DeFi platforms—not that centralized players happen to be spared—means they have needed to implement much stricter safety measures. That may make sure they are harder targets for exploits, she added.

Ethereum was probably the most exploited chain within the quarter, adopted through the BNB chain and Arbitrum, which symbolized 44.4%, 25%, and 5.6%, correspondingly, based on the Immunefi report.

When requested why Ethereum has been targeted probably the most, Jonah Michaels, Comms Lead at Immunefi, described that Ethereum may be the primary hub for DeFi activity and presently has got the greatest quantity of funds locked within its ecosystem.

Consequently, it’s the primary target for online hackers, who are able to exploit numerous protocols in a massive for significant gains. Furthermore, Ethereum is related to major privacy chains and technologies, which online hackers exploit to rapidly launder stolen funds.

Essentially, crooks tend to pay attention to platforms most abundant in capital and potential victims, which within the cryptocurrency space is mainly Ethereum.

As a whole, $26,736,000 continues to be retrieved from stolen funds in four certain situations. This amount represents 5% from the total losses in Q2 2024.

Edited by Stacy Elliott.