According to a research report released on Mar. 28 by Immunefi, a blockchain security firm, the cryptocurrency industry witnessed a notable decline in losses attributed to hacking and fraudulent activities during the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.

The report indicates that the total losses incurred due to hacking and fraud in Q1 2024 amounted to approximately $336.3 million, a significant decrease from the $437.5 million reported in Q1 2023. A total of 46 hacking incidents and 15 cases of fraudulent activities were identified in the report.

Hackers were still mainly after decentralized finance (DeFi) systems, which have almost $100 billion in value locked up in Web3 protocols.

According to Immunefi’s report, all exploits in Q1 2024 were aimed at DeFi platforms, while no events were found for centralized finance platforms.

One of the most significant projects, worth $144.5 million, or 43% of the total, lost the most funds. On New Year’s Eve, $81.7 million worth of attacks were aimed at the cross-chain bridge protocol Orbit Bridge. In Q1, January had the most significant monthly losses, totaling $133 million. Moreover, Orbit Chain offered a massive reward of $8 million for information regarding exploits.

#PeckShieldAlert Hackers stole ~$99.3 million across over 36 attacks in December.
The Cross-chain #OrbitBridge suffered an $81.5 million exploit on New Year’s Eve, marking it as the 9th top hack targeting a cross-chain bridge in the last 3 years pic.twitter.com/6oGqu7gjLo

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) January 1, 2024

In the report, Mitchell Amador, CEO of Immunefi, said that DeFi systems are open to private key breaches and that security needs to be improved across all code and protocol infrastructure immediately.

Recap of Q1 2024 Crypto Attacks and Retrievals

A $62 million hack affected the Blast-based nonfungible token game Munchables for the second-largest attack. The hacker did give up the secret keys to the wallet that held Munchables’ assets, though, so the money was returned within 24 hours.

Munchables has been compromised. We are tracking movements and attempting to stop the the transactions. We will update as soon as we know more.

— Munchables (@_munchables_) March 26, 2024

In Q1, $73.9 million, or 22% of the funds stolen through seven scams, was found and returned.

In 46 incidents, 95.6% ($321.6 million) of the losses were due to hacks. In 15 cases, fraud, scams, and rug pulls caused 4.4% ($14.7 million) of the losses. The most targeted chain was Ethereum, and the next most targeted was the BNB Chain. Together, these two networks were responsible for 73% of all losses.

Ethereum recorded the highest number of attacks, with 33 incidents contributing to 51% of the losses. BNB Chain experienced 12 attacks, representing 22% of the exploited funds.

Disclaimer

This article is provided for information only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.