Only around 5 percent of the stolen funds valued at roughly $27 million were recovered.
Over half a billion dollars worth of cryptocurrency was stolen in the second quarter this year through hacks and scams, with two incidents making up the bulk of the stolen funds, according to a recent report by bug bounty platform Immunefi.
Crypto losses in Q2, 2024, totaled more than $572 million, the June report said. Over $564 million in losses were accounted for by 53 hacking incidents and the remaining $8.45 million by 19 fraud incidents. Hacking was responsible for 98.5 percent of losses, with fraud making up 1.5 percent. Two major hacking incidents in that quarter made up $360 million (62.8 percent) of the total losses.
The first was a May 31 hacking attack against Japanese cryptocurrency platform DMM Bitcoin that led to a loss of around $305 million, while the second was a cyberattack targeting Turkish crypto exchange BtcTurk, on June 23, which resulted in $55 million worth of funds getting stolen.
More than $920 million in crypto losses were identified—a 24 percent increase compared to the same period last year.
Main targets of the exploits were centralized finance (CeFi) entities. In CeFi, all crypto trades are handled via a central exchange. This stands in contrast to decentralized finance (DeFi) where there is no exchange involved in the trade.
CeFi losses made up 70 percent of the total losses, with DeFi accounting for the remaining 30 percent.
“This quarter highlights how infrastructure compromises can be the most devastating hacks in crypto, as a single compromise can lead to millions in damages,” said Immunefi CEO Mitchell Amador.
“This was evident during this quarter, where losses surged primarily due to hacks targeting CeFi infrastructure, surpassing DeFi, despite a smaller number of hacks in that sector. Robust measures to safeguard the entirety of the ecosystem are crucial.”
According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), payments made via cryptocurrencies “typically are not reversible.” As such, the hacked cryptos may be difficult to recover.
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