During the initial quarter of this year, the cryptocurrency sector experienced a reduction in hacking-related losses, marking a significant decrease of 23.1% compared to the previous year.
According to a comprehensive report by Immunefi, the total amount lost to hacking incidents in Q1 of 2024 amounted to approximately $336.3 million.
Immunefi’s findings revealed that within the first three months of 2024, the cryptocurrency ecosystem witnessed 46 hacking incidents and 15 instances of fraudulent activities, resulting in losses exceeding $321 million.
Notably, decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms emerged as the primary targets for hackers, accounting for the entirety of losses incurred by the crypto industry.
Mitchell Amador, CEO of Immunefi, emphasized the vulnerability of DeFi platforms to private key compromises, underscoring the urgent need for bolstered security measures across code and protocol infrastructure.
Comparing data from the same period in 2023, the report highlighted a 17.5% decrease in the number of hacker attacks.
Ethereum (ETH) emerged as the most exploited network, suffering 33 incidents, followed by BNB Chain (BNB) with 14 attacks.
Together, these two blockchains accounted for over 73% of the total funds lost to hacking incidents.
Among the notable breaches, the Orbit Bridge and Munchables web3 gaming platforms were the hardest hit, with attackers absconding with over $81 million and nearly $63 million, respectively.
Subsequent targets included PlayDapp and FixedFloat, which incurred losses of $32 million and $26 million, respectively.
Despite a decrease in fraud cases by 22.4% over the past year, hacking remains the predominant method of cryptocurrency theft, constituting 95.6% of total losses.
However, analysts noted a decline in fraud-related losses from $19 million in 2023 to $14 million in 2024. Remarkably, only $73 million, or 22% of the stolen funds, were recovered during the current year.
The centralized finance (CeFi) sector reported no losses during the first quarter of 2024, a stark deviation from the $1.8 million lost during the same period in the previous year.
