ATTACKS on various crypto projects and ecosystems brought millions of dollars to hackers and scammers.
According to the recent findings by the Atlas VPN team, blockchain hackers stole $682 million in 72 hack events throughout Q1 2022. In addition, hacks on Solana and Binance Smart Chain ecosystems attributed to more than half of the losses during this quarter.
The Solana ecosystem suffered 4 hack events and lost $397 million in 2022 Q1. Wormhole, a communication bridge between Solana and other DeFi networks, experienced the most significant hack of the quarter and lost about $334 million.
Cybercriminals hacked projects in the Binance Smart Chain ecosystem 12 times, accumulating $99 million in losses.
Other types of hacks on blockchain caused $52 million in losses throughout 9 events. IRA Financial Trust, which provides self-directed retirement accounts, lost $36 million to a crypto hack.
NFTs were the top target among cybercriminals with 20 hacks and nearly $49 million in losses. Many scammers are launching NFT projects, which turn out to be rug pull scams.
Exchanges were hacked out of $42 million in just 3 events. At the same time, the Ethereum ecosystem lost nearly $25 million to attackers in 16 hack events throughout Q1 2022.
Cybersecurity writer at Atlas VPN Vilius Kardelis shares his thoughts on blockchain-related hacks:
“Blockchain project security should be one of the primary concerns for a person looking to invest in cryptocurrency. Most blockchain-related hack events happen because cybercriminals exploit flaws in the project code. A successful hack could cause significant losses to the creators and investors of the crypto platform.”
Blockchain hacks reach an all-time high
The growing market of cryptocurrencies entices not only legit people interested in the technology but also cybercriminals who want to exploit it.
Cryptocurrency projects experienced only 5 blockchain-related hack events in Q1 2018. Next year, in the first quarter of 2019, hacks increased by 1140% to 62. While in Q1 2020, hacks decreased to 13, in Q1 2021, blockchain-related breaches and scams jumped up by 154% to 33.
Blockchain-related hack events have reached an all-time high of 72 in Q1 2022. It represents a 118% increase in hacks compared to the first quarter of 2021.
