Cryptocurrency experts estimate how much cryptocurrency was stolen by hackers in 2023

Immunefi, which has a $ 135 million fund, provides rewards to ethical hackers who expose vulnerabilities in decentralized financial platforms (DeFi). A recent reportby analysts mentions 219 hacker attacks that resulted in the loss of $ 1.69 billion in assets. In addition, another $ 100 million was lost due to crypto fraud.

The largest losses from cybercriminals were recorded in November ($ 343 million), September ($ 340 million), and July ($ 320 million). However, 2023 was calmer than the previous year: the total amount of stolen funds decreased by 54.2% to $ 3.9 billion.

The DeFi sector proved to be the most susceptible to attacks: hacks of decentralized platforms resulted in 77.3% of the total loss, while centralized platforms (CeFi) suffered losses of 22.7%.

The largest incident was the hacking of Mixin Network, which resulted in the loss of $ 200 million worth of assets. Other incidents were reported with Euler Finance ($ 197 million), Multichain ($ 126 million), Poloniex ($ 126 million), and BonqDAO ($ 120 million).

In total, only $ 241 million, or 13.4% of the total amount of losses, was recovered. In 2023, the most frequently attacked blockchains were BNB Chain (133 incidents), Ethereum (95), Polygon (10), and Avalanche (6 cases).

Earlier, Chainalysis experts summarized the crypto hacks of 2022. The analysts estimate that hackers stole $ 3 billion worth of digital assets, which is $ 1 billion more than in 2021. Among the largest crypto thefts, the researchers identified incidents related to inter-chain bridges and decentralized financial protocols.

The largest crypto hacks of 2023 were recognized as:

• a hacker attack by the North Korean Lazarus Group on the Ronin Network — $ 625 million was stolen
• hacking of the FTX crypto exchange — $ 400 million was stolen
• hacking of the Nomad Bridge token bridge — $ 190 million stolen
• mango Markets exploit — $ 115 million stolen
• bNB Token Hub hack — $ 120 million stolen.

PeckShield analysts emphasized that most of the stolen cryptocurrency went through cryptomixers. The most popular service was Tornado Cash. Pertsev’s creation has already been involved in a crypto hack in the new year: hackers who stole cryptocurrency from the BTC.com pool owned by BIT Mining Limited used the mixer to launder money. According to X-explore analysts, the attackers managed to earn 32.5 BTC and 1964 ETH, some of which ended up on Tornado Cash.