Crypto Thieves Steal $363 Million in November, Biggest ‘Damage’ Ever

Crypto criminals walked away with $363 million in November, and the cryptocurrency industry has now seen its most “harmful” month for crypto theft, fraud and exploitation.

Of the roughly $316.4 million earned through exploitation alone, Flash Loans caused $45.5 million in losses, and $1.1 million was lost to various exit scams, Certike said in a Nov. 30 (ex-Twitter) post.

#CertiKStats alert

Combining all events in November, we found ~$363M lost to exploitation, hacking and fraud

This makes November the worst month this year

Withdrawal fraud was ~$1.1M.

Flash loans were ~$45.5M.

Exploitation was ~$316.4M.

See more details below pic.twitter.com/QoDy6d8IJH

— CertiKAlert (@CertiKAlert) November 30, 2023

The biggest losses in November occurred in Poloniex and HTX/Heco Bridge, with losses of $131.4 million and $113.3 million, respectively.

The third largest exploit was a single victim who lost $27 million to a phishing attack.

Meanwhile, the $45 million KyberSwap attack eclipsed all losses from flash lending attacks in the month.

The latest monthly figure surpassed the previous record of $329 million set in September, largely due to the $200 million Mixin Network attack.

In the year As of late November, about $1.7 billion was lost to exploits, scams and flash loan attacks by 2023. This accounts for only 54% of the $3.7 billion invested in crypto in the entire year of 2022. In the year A loss of $1.7 billion is projected by 2021, according to CertiK.

Related: Blockchain Audit: Steps to Ensure Network Security

In a comment to Cointelegraph, Ronghui Gu, one of Certike's founders, argued that having standardized smart contract audits is not enough these days.

As thieves continue to find new and innovative ways to exploit protocols and victims, SIM swapping and multi-signature vulnerabilities are being exploited among the latest security threats.

Exploits of this nature are hindering adoption, said Christian Seifert, a researcher at the Forta Network Security Institute.

“Imagine losing all your savings because your bank branch was broken into overnight. You wouldn't bank there.

These events will “intimidate” people who were previously open to exploring the Web3 space, Jerry Peng, research analyst at Web3 analytics firm 0xScope, said in a recent note to Cointelegraph.

Magazine: Real AI Matters in Crypto, Issue 3: Modern Contract Audits and Cyber ​​Security