Approximately $1 billion Was Lost In 2023 Via Cybersecurity Incidents

In August 2023, the breakdown of losses in the crypto sector included approximately $26 million from exit scams, $6.4 million from flash loan attacks, and $13.5 million from exploits, resulting in a total monthly loss exceeding $45 million.

Notable incidents that contributed to these losses included the Zunami Protocol attack, causing $2.2 million in damages the Exactly Protocol exploit, resulting in $7.3 million in losses, and the recent PEPE withdrawal incident, which accounted for $13.2 million in damages.

Throughout the year, CertiK reported cumulative losses of over $997 million due to exploits, hacks, and scams. These losses can be further categorized into approximately $261 million attributed to flash loan attacks, over $137 million related to exit scams, and more than $596 million linked to exploits.

Although the losses in August remained substantial, they were notably lower than the losses recorded in the preceding month of July 2023. During July, Web3 data outlet De.Fi reported total losses of approximately $486 million, with the Multichain exploit alone contributing a significant portion of $231 million to this total.

In July, Multichain officially ceased its operations on July 14th, citing reasons such as insufficient funding for ongoing operations and a lack of alternative sources of information, as the CEO had reportedly been detained by Chinese authorities and was uncontactable.

In any case, experts agree that for the crypto community and industry to keep growing and become more reputable, these hacks and digital exploits must be prevented at all costs going forward.