Crypto Hacks Surge to $750M in Q3 2024 Despite Fewer Attacks: CertiK Report

• Over $750 million has been lost across 155 separate incidents in Q3 2024.
• The total value of losses is up compared to previous years, largely due to crypto’s solid market performance throughout 2024.
• Crypto hack losses totaled $1.8 billion in 2023 and $3.7 billion in 2022.

Web3 security-centric firm CertiK has released a report on crypto breaches in Q3 2024, revealing a significant increase in losses despite fewer security incidents.

CertiK Q3 Report

As per CertiK’s “Web3 Hack3d Security Report ” for Q3 2024, a little over $753 million has been lost across 155 security incidents, placing 2024’s losses – so far – ahead of 2023’s.

That’s an increase of 9.5% compared to Q2 2024, which CertiK reported suffered $688 million in losses across 184 incidents. Although the number of security breaches and hacks declined, their value increased.

CertiK reports that phishing was the largest attack vector, accounting for $343.1 million over 65 incidents. A further $324.4 million was lost across 10 private key compromises.

Ethereum was the destination of choice for malicious actors, accounting for $387.89 million of Q3’s attacks, scams, and frauds. A huge Bitcoin wallet breach and the WazirX exchange hack make up for most of the losses.

Top Incidents

Bitcoin’s on-chain losses totaled $238 million, which took place in one fell swoop. On Aug. 19, 2024, a BTC whale lost 4,064 BTC to a wallet compromise. The funds were rapidly funneled through multiple exchanges, crypto mixes, decentralized exchanges (DEXs), and other platforms

Indian crypto exchange WazirX was hacked on July 18, 2024, costing it a heavy $234 million across over 200 crypto assets. This included approximately $101 million in Shiba Inu (SHIB), $53 million in Ethereum (ETH), $11 million in Polygon (MATIC), $8 million in Pepe (PEPE), and $6 million in Tether (USDT).

Finally, one individual had $55.5 million in stablecoin DAI stolen in what CertiK describes as a “sophisticated” phishing attack. The attackers somehow tricked the whale into signing a fraudulent transaction, transferring ownership of their DSProxy smart contract to them, and allowing them to mint 55,473,618 DAI tokens to their newly set Maker vault.

Value Up, Incidents Down

In H1 2024 alone, 408 incidents have yielded a staggering $1.19 billion in losses. As of CertiK’s latest report, 2024’s losses now total approximately $1.94 billion. Looking back at CertiK’s 2023 report , this already exceeds the entirety of 2023’s $1.8 billion in losses.

So far, that’s 563 incidents averaging around $3.45 million a hit. In 2023, losses were accrued across 751 incidents, which averaged $2.45 million per incident. It’s worth noting that Bitcoin and crypto markets, in general, have relished solid price gains this year, giving some explanation for the steep increase in losses.