Crypto Industry Faces $413 Million Loss from Hacks and Scams in Q3

Between July and September, cryptocurrency companies experienced 34 incidents of hacks and scams, resulting in losses exceeding $413 million, according to a report by Immunefi.

Losses since January have risen to $1.34 billion, which is 3.9% lower than the same period last year.

Compared to the previous quarter, the figure for July-September decreased by 28%, and compared to the same period last year, it fell by 40%.

In July-September, 69.5% of losses were attributed to the hacks of WazirX ($235 million) and BingX ($52 million).

Losses amounted to $281.9 million in July, $15.1 million in August, and $115.9 million in September.

Hacker attacks accounted for 99.25% of the damage, with fraud cases making up the remaining 0.75%.

In July, the targeted networks were Ethereum and BNB Chain, with 15 and eight incidents respectively. They accounted for 44.1% and 23.5% of the total losses.

Immunefi experts noted that hacks of CeFi projects remain the most lucrative for hackers — in Q3, three targets yielded $309 million. DeFi is attacked more frequently, but smaller amounts are stolen — $104 million from 31 attacks.

“In CeFi, the biggest infrastructural issue is the management of private keys, which usually lacks a security audit. It requires strict policies, practices, and emergency action plans,” the report states.

Affected projects managed to recover only $14.9 million — 3.6% of the stolen funds.

More than 77.8% of projects attacked by hackers suffered a sustained negative impact on the price of their native coin for six months following the incident.