- Crypto hackers have stolen more than $400 million in Q3 according to Immunefi
- Scammers have also pocketed roughly $3 million
- Most of the funds were siphoned from centralized crypto exchanges
Crypto hackers and scammers have pocketed more than $ 413 million in Q3, 2024, according to a report by Immunefi. The report noted that only around $3 million went to scammers with the rest going to hackers. Immunefi disclosed that most of the hacked amount came from centralized exchanges like WazirX which lost $235 million to hackers, a phenomenon that agrees with an earlier report showing that hackers are targeting centralized crypto projects more than their decentralized counterparts.
DeFi Projects also Lost Funds
According to the report, close to 70% of the funds lost in Q3 were siphoned from WazirX and BingX. It added that losses from hacks accounted for over 99% of all crypto losses in Q3. The bug bounty platform revealed that roughly 75% of losses came from centralized platforms while the rest was hacked from DeFi networks.
DeFi projects on the Ethereum and BNB Chain blockchains were the most targeted by hackers. Out of the amount stolen, only close to $15 million stolen in two incidents was recovered. According to Immunefi, hackers have pocketed $1.3 billion since the start of the year.
July and September were the Worst Months
The highest volume of losses was recorded in July and September, where $281.9 and $115.9 million were lost respectively. Q3 2024 losses, however, dropped by 40% compared to a similar period last year. The number of “individual successful attacks [also] decreased by 54% from 75 in Q3 2023 to 34 in Q3 2024.”
The amount lost in Q3 2024 is also lower than the $573 million lost in Q2 2024. According to Immunefi’s “Crypto Losses in Q2 2024” report, over half of the amount was stolen from the DMM crypto exchange.
With malicious actors always looking for weaknesses in crypto projects, it’s likely that crypto losses in 2024 will surpass $1.5 billion.
