Hackers stole over $ 1 billion in cryptocurrency in 2022

As investment in cryptocurrencies grows, criminals have an incentive to use the DeFi space to steal crypto investors' assets. In 2022, attacks on bridges between blockchains have become the best weapon for crypto thieves. According to a study by Elliptic, a blockchain analytics company, hackers managed to earn more than a billion dollars from their attacks this year.

Inter-network bridges allow assets to be moved between different blockchain protocols, which means that networks contain a significant concentration of crypto assets. The recent spate of attacks on bridges has led some industry leaders to question whether the benefits of bridges outweigh the risks involved. Elliptic analysts believe that bridge hacks are simply growth issues that the DeFi market will eventually overcome.

Harmony (100 million), Sky Mavis (625 million), and Wormhole (323 million) are not the full list of bridges affected this year. Accordingly, by the end of the year, the figure indicated by analysts may well exceed expectations by half. The good news is that hackers steal not only wholesale but also retail.

Among the critics of firewalls is Vitaly Buterin, who earlier this year claimed that technological problems would lead to security issues. It is worth noting that the DeFi market is currently capitalized at about USD 900 billion.