$313m in crypto lost to hackers, phishers in August: Report

As a seasoned analyst with years of experience in the tumultuous world of cryptocurrencies, I find myself increasingly alarmed by the surge in cyberattacks and fraudulent activities in the industry. The recent string of hacks and phishing attacks that have drained millions from the crypto ecosystem is not just disheartening but also a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities that persist in this space.


In August, there was a substantial rise in the quantity of cryptocurrencies stolen by hackers and scammers via cyber-attacks and phishing schemes, as the market experienced bouts of confusion.

Last month, the crypto world experienced a loss of approximately $313.86 million due to more than ten separate hacking incidents, as reported by PeckShield, a blockchain security firm. Notably, around $293 million of this total amount was attributed to phishing attacks.

In August 2024, more than ten crypto-related hacks occurred, leading to a staggering loss of approximately $313.86 million. The two largest incidents, both involving unauthorized transfers due to phishing scams, were responsible for an astounding 93.5% of the total losses, equating to a massive $293.4 million. Here’s a rundown of the top five hacks:

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) September 1, 2024

According to a recent report from crypto.news, there has been a 18% rise in the amount of cryptocurrency assets stolen by fraudulent actors since July. This equates to approximately $266 million in losses across 16 separate incidents involving crypto and decentralized finance companies.

Hackers hunting whales

On August 19th, a significant cyber theft occurred involving over 4,000 Bitcoin (BTC), valued approximately at $238 million, being swiped from a whale in a phishing incident. The perpetrator swiftly transferred the stolen assets across various cryptocurrency platforms such as THORChain, KuCoin, and Railgun.

In much the same way, another whale suffered a loss of approximately $55 million in DAI stablecoin due to a phishing scam. It appears that the money was kept within the fourth largest Decentralized Finance (DeFi) platform, Maker, according to available data.

As an analyst, upon examining the on-chain data, I can report that the funds from the breach have been converted into Ethereum (ETH), leaving no remaining assets in the address associated with the attack.

As an analyst, I found myself examining an incident on August 6th involving Ronin Network. A significant transaction of 4,000 ETH, equivalent to approximately $10 million, was identified as potentially malicious. Fortunately, it turned out that this wasn’t the work of fraudsters, but rather a case where white-hat hackers capitalized on a Maximum Extractable Value bug.

1. After quickly returning the stolen money, the hackers highlighted the issue to the Ronin Network team, who then announced a potential $500,000 reward as a bug bounty for ethical hackers.

In August, as reported by PeckShield, two more unauthorized transactions, one valued at approximately $5.1 million and another involving $1.8 million from Nexera, ranked fourth and fifth respectively among the biggest hacks of the month.

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2024-09-01 17:52