In just the first 4 days of August, the amount stolen in crypto assets was $205m – a value which is only set to rise.
4 Crypto Hacks in 4 Days
Throughout the first four days of August 2022, Comparitech’s crypto heist tracker has logged four crypto hacks, meaning this month looks set to be an exceptional month for crypto thefts. Add to this the fact that more than $2.1bn has been lost to these types of attacks in 2022 so far (over a quarter of the total lost to all crypto hacks) and it’s clear 2022 is going to be a record-breaking year for the theft of cryptocurrencies.
August has seen four crypto hacks on Nomad Bridge ($190.7m–with around $9m recovered so far), Solana ($8m), ZB Exchange ($4.8m), and Reaper Farm ($1.7m). This equates to just over $205m–10 percent of the total amount stolen this year to date.
The World’s Biggest Crypto Heists
The huge figures for 2022 are largely due to four of the ten biggest crypto heists of all time occurring this year with Nomad Bridge being one of them. The others are Ronin Network for $620m (the biggest crypto heist of all time), Wormhole for $326m, and Beanstalk for $182m.
It’s also worth pointing out that the value of crypto has declined somewhat this year, meaning the staggering amounts featured in these attacks could have been worth vast amounts more in previous months/years. Nevertheless, hackers from heists in years gone by will be hoping they’re still sitting on some of their loot as the equivalent prices in today’s value for all of these heists (even with some cryptos seeing depleted prices) is a staggering $41bn. For example, one of the biggest heists that year (and to date), MTGox, saw 850,000 bitcoins stolen. At the time, these were worth around $470m. Today, they’re worth over $19.8bn.
Year On Year Increase
There has been a year on year increase in the amount stolen in crypto assets. In 2020, there were 50 crypto heists recorded with an overall loss of $496.3m. In 2021, this value was $2.7bn, accounting for 132 crypt heists – over double the amount from the previous year. In 2020, so far, there have been 104 crypto heists recorded amounting to a loss of $2.1bn. It is clear that crypto heists are becoming more commonplace and more sophisticated in their nature. Anyone looking to invest in crypto will need to bear this in mind; now is the time to take cybersecurity seriously.
