Report: aggregate losses by users and investors in 2022 exceeded $63.9 billion

In 2022 the crypto industry experienced 359 incidents, including hacks and bankruptcies, causing a total loss of more than $63.9 billion. This was reported by researchers at HAPI Labs.

👉Welcome our retrospective analysis of the cybersecurity space in the year 2022

❗️2022 was packed with all kind of events and unprecedented losses in the #Web3 Space and we compiled a concise overview for you to read!https://t.co/XGojFzQmtG pic.twitter.com/KVbhsjmTUp

— HAPI | Onchain Cybersecurity Protocol (@i_am_hapi_one) January 31, 2023

According to their estimates, 188 incidents were directly tied to hacker attacks, 133 of which affected the DeFi segment. Of the remaining 171 incidents, there were bankruptcies, exit scams and other fraudulent activities by companies. Meanwhile, 154 cases (90%) fell into classic rug pull schemes.

Six major bankruptcies in 2022 accounted for $57.6 billion in losses, or 90.2% of the total. Five of the six incidents involved custodial platforms.

The total loss from exploits and hacks amounted to $3.8 billion, or 5.9% of the total. The ten largest exploits account for $2.8 billion in losses.

The most vulnerable Web3 products in 2022 were cross-chain bridges. Eleven attacks on them caused losses of $1.8 billion.

A number of algorithmic stablecoins also faced problems. Nine related incidents across seven blockchains resulted in losses of $40.2 billion.

Losses from Ponzi schemes last year amounted to $928 million. In the NFT and GameFi segments, 42 projects incurred losses of $97 million.

Overall in 2022, 26 blockchains were affected, including sidechains, parachains and L2 solutions. The leader in the number of incidents was the BNB Chain network — it accounted for 201 incidents.

Meanwhile the losses to users of centralized platforms totaled $19.6 billion (30.7% of all losses for the year).

Of the 359 incidents tracked by HAPI Labs, only 93 affected projects passed a public audit. Market leader CertiK analyzed 9 projects from the list, 8 of which were attacked by cybercriminals for about $10 million. The ninth project on the list of victims was Terra.

Beosin data show that in 2022 the Web3 industry losses from 167 major attacks totaled around $3.6 billion.