Crypto Hack Losses Hit $19B, Terraform Labs Shuts Down: Finances Redeemed
Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly volume of decentralized finance (DeFi) insights – a newsletter designed to bring you the most relevant developments from the past week.
In this week's newsletter, total losses from crypto hacks and exploits in the past 13 years reached $19 billion, with 785 incidents reported, and the Solana Foundation took action against verifiers involved in sandwich attacks on merchants.
And, in other major news, Terraform Labs has completely ceased operations and handed over control to the Terra community after settling with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for $4.47 billion.
Crypto Hacks Rise to $19 Billion in 13 Years: Crystal Intelligence
The cryptocurrency industry has experienced 785 reported hacks and exploits in the past 13 years.
According to a Crystal Intelligence report shared with Cointelegraph, nearly $19 billion in digital assets have been stolen in the 13 years since the first known crypto hack was reported on June 19, 2011.
The largest single crypto theft case was the 2019 Plus Token scam, when attackers made off with $2.9 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). In the year In February 2024, the $290 million security breach on PlayDapp represented the largest single crypto heist in the past two years.
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The Curve founder paid off 93 percent of the $10 million in bad debt raised in liquidation.
Michael Egorov, founder of DeFi protocol Curve Finance, said he had paid off 93 percent of the $10 million in bad debt from the protocol's soft liquidation, which was triggered earlier in the day.
On June 13, Curve Financial's smooth liquidation method successfully managed a real-world test in a recent hacking attempt, but the price of its native CRV token fell more than 28% amid the uproar. According to blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, Egorov himself faced $140 million in liquidity, “borrowing $95.7M in stablecoins (mostly crvUSD) with $141M in CRV across five protocols.”
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To stop Terraform Lab operations, the Terra community will take over.
The CEO of Terraform Labs, Chris Amani, has announced that he will cease operations following the company's $4.47 billion settlement with the US SEC.
The company plans to sell key projects in the Terra ecosystem and give the community control of the Terra blockchain. The decision to dissolve Terraform Lab in 2010 It follows a $4.47 billion settlement with the SEC regarding the historic collapse of the algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) in 2022. The settlement includes a whopping $3.58 billion in embezzlement — the illegal or unethical abandonment of profits — and $420 million in civil penalties.
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Solana cracks assertive sandwich attacks.
The Solana Foundation has removed from its delegation program a group of operators proven to be involved in sandwich attacks on merchants.
In a sandwich attack, a malicious trader searches a network of their choice, such as Ethereum, for a pending transaction. Sandwiching occurs by placing one order before the transaction and another immediately after. The attacker places the first pending transaction between the foreground and background runs to control the value of the property and exploit the difference.
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Overview of the DeFi market
According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, DeFi's top 100 tokens had a heavy week by market capitalization, with most trading in the red on the weekly charts. The total value locked in DeFi protocols has reached $101 billion.
Thanks for reading this week's roundup of the most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and lessons about this dynamic and evolving space.
