Crypto hack losses down 51 percent by 2023: Report

By 2023, $1.8 billion in digital assets will be lost through 751 security incidents. While the amount is still large, it is 51% less than in 2022, with losses from hacking and other issues reaching $3.7 billion.

The information comes from blockchain security firm Certike's annual report titled “Hack3d: The Web3 Security Report 2023.” On January 3, the security company prepared a document that highlights the state of Web3 security in the past year.

In the report, the company noted that the third quarter of 2023 posted a record loss of more than $686 million. Additionally, private key agreements continue to be a very expensive attack vector. In 2023, more than $880 million was lost in 47 instances of private key breaches.

When it comes to blockchains, the Ethereum network has experienced significant losses. According to CertiK, Ethereum saw a loss of $686 million on 224 occasions. This blockchain has saved an average of $3 million per event. On the other hand, BNB Chain recorded 387 security issues. However, the total loss was only $134 million, much less than Ethereum.

Furthermore, cross-chain interoperability remains a pain point for crypto. The security report indicated that there were about 800 million dollars worth of security breaches on several blockchains.

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All things considered, 2023 is a “positive development” for blockchain security, Ronghui Gu, co-founder of Certike, told Cointelegraph. Gu explained:

“The growth of bug bounty platforms and other proactive security measures is a good sign. We expect losses to continue to decline throughout 2024.”

Gu also said that the 51 percent decline in losses could be attributed to a broader bear market in which token and treasury valuations are declining. However, Gu believes that if the losses during the bull run are low, it shows that the Web3 industry is “learning its safety lesson.”

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