Research: Crypto hackers stole greater than $2.5 billion over three quarters in 2022

Cybercriminals are nonetheless aggressively exploiting blockchain know-how and initiating scams, though the cryptocurrency trade is now experiencing a big market correction. 

Within the third quarter of 2022, hackers have been profitable in stealing about $483 million in whole, though there was a 43% lower within the variety of blockchain hacks in the latest quarter in comparison with Q2, in line with the findings of an analysis performed by Atlas VPN shared with Finbold on October 25.

The entire cash misplaced to blockchain hackers over the three quarters was a complete of $2,570,117,825, with the sum of money that was misplaced decided through the use of the conversion charge of a selected cryptocurrency on the time when the hack or fraud occurred.

The figures used within the evaluation have been compiled by Slowmist Hacked, a company that information data on assaults which can be publicly reported in opposition to blockchain tasks.

Ethereum suffers probably the most losses

The Ethereum (ETH) ecosystem sustained probably the most losses, totaling $348 million throughout 11 assaults. Hacker strikes value the cross-chain interoperability know-how Nomad bridge and the crypto market Wintermute round $160 million.

On the checklist of probably the most extreme losses, the Polkadot (DOT) ecosystem ranks second. Polkadot crypto tasks misplaced $52 million in solely two hacking incidents. In the meantime, the Binance Sensible Chain (BSC) ecosystem was hacked 13 occasions and misplaced $28 million in cryptocurrency, with hackers concentrating on the BSC-related crypto tasks probably the most.

Concurrently, the Solana (SOL) ecosystem misplaced over $6 million in cryptocurrency in three hack assaults. Throughout 4 occurrences, blockchain-related assaults resulted in $5.1 million in damages. 3 times, cybercriminals attacked cryptocurrency exchanges and stole $6.eight million.

In the meantime, non-fungible token (NFT) netted cybercriminals over $four million over the course of seven occasions. Different crypto-related tasks misplaced $29.5 million in cryptocurrency because of 10 assaults. 

Crypto-related hacks by quarter

Notably, the sum of money misplaced to blockchain hackers has been reducing quarter after quarter. From over $1.three billion within the first quarter of 2022 to $810 million within the second quarter of 2022. Complete losses have been lowered by 40% within the third quarter, totaling $483 million.

There have been 55 blockchain hacks in Q3 2022, down from 96 in Q2. Knowledge from the third quarter of 2021 reveals a 28% drop in blockchain incidents in comparison with the third quarter of this yr. If the cryptocurrency market continues to slip, the fourth quarter will doubtless see an identical quantity of hacks to the third.

However, if we study the primary three quarters of 2021 and 2022, we are able to see that the variety of hacks on blockchains has climbed by 39% this yr, growing from 166 situations in 2021 to 230 in 2022.