In May – Immunefi – Crypto losses from fraud and hacking decreased by 12%
According to a May 30 report by blockchain security firm Immunefi, crypto losses due to fraud and hacking have decreased by 12% year over year. A total of $52 million was lost during the month, down from $59 million in the same month last year. Additionally, the figure represents a 28% drop compared to the amount lost in April.
The report also shows that losses caused by hacking and fraud in the web3 industry are decreasing. In March, Immunefi released a report stating that its Q1 2024 loss was down 23 percent from last year. In April, Certike reported its lowest monthly loss ever.
According to a report from Imunefi on May 30, most of the losses were caused by two individual attacks. The first was the hacking of the Web3 gaming protocol Gala Games, which resulted in a loss of nearly $21 million. The second was a smart contract exploit against Sone Finance, which resulted in a loss of around $20 million. These two attacks represented 78 percent of the total losses during the month.
Related: $20M Exploit Sonne Finance Disabled, Hacker in No Sense of Negotiation
Ethereum and BNB SmartChain were the two networks targeted by attackers in May, attracting 62 percent of the attacks. All of the attacks were against decentralized protocols, and no centralized exchange lost money from the attack.
Fraud continues to represent a small portion of total losses. Of the total losses, only $1.7 million or 13.6% was due to fraud, with the rest due to hacking and extortion.
In its report, Immunefi did not provide an estimate of why the financial losses from exploits have decreased. In the year 2023 had fewer losses than 2022, but experts attribute this early decline to improvements in security technology and police practices.
In April, Blockaid said its software had caused some crypto exchanges to be shut down, reducing at least one form of risk faced by crypto users.
