$1.8B Lost to Web3 Hackers and Fraudsters by 2023: Immunefi
In the year A total of $1.8 billion will be lost to Web3 hackers and fraudsters by 2023, according to a report released on December 28 by blockchain security platform Eminefi. About 17 percent of the losses were attributed to the North Korean-linked Lazarus group, the report said.
In terms of losses, the biggest hack of the year was the peer-to-peer trading platform Mixin Network, which cost crypto investors more than $200 million. In second place was the $197 million mortgage lending platform Euler Financial, and in third place was the $126 million cross-chain bridge protocol Multichain hack.
According to the report, nearly $309 million in losses were identified by law enforcement agencies in the Democratic Republic of Korea, also known as North Korea, linked to the Alazarus Group cybercriminal organization. These losses include Atomic Wallet ($100 million), CoinEx ($70 million), Alphapo ($60 million), Stack, CoinPaid, and others.
Related: Atomic Pocket Sued Over $100M Crypto Hack Loss: Report
Most of the money lost is from hacking rather than fraud. Only $103 million was lost to overt fraud schemes, such as carpet dragging, while more than $1.6 billion was lost to hacking and exploitation. Most of the losses — $1.3 billion — came from protocols that claim to be decentralized. Only $409 million was lost from centralized finance (CeFi) crypto protocols, the report said.
The $1.8 billion loss appears to represent a more than 52% drop from last year, when blockchain security platform Chinalysis reported more than $3.8 billion in stolen funds.
