It is no secret that in 2022 the world of Web3 and decentralized finance (DeFi) experienced a series of major exploits and attacks. From the Ronin bridge attack to the Nomad hack, More than $2 billion was lost in the top 10 exploits alone.
Beosin’s 2022 Global Web3 Security Report revealed that of the top 167 security incidents last year, the most vulnerable were DeFi-related. DeFi projects were attacked 113 times, which accounted for approximately 67.6% of recorded attacks.
They are followed, in this order, by attacks on exchanges, non-fungible token (NFT) projects, cross-chain bridges, and wallets.
According to the report, DeFi projects ranked second in terms of monetary losses, with a total of $950 million in losses. This figure adds to the USD 1.89 billion lost the previous year in attacks on cross-chain bridges.
In total, in 2022, USD 3.6 billion was lost due to attacks on all types of projects. This is an increase of 47.4% from the previous year, in which USD 2.4 billion was lost in incidents related to security exploits.
Alarm bells are already ringing for DeFi projects to be even more careful about exploits this new year.
Experts say that a combination of the number of DeFi projects springing up, the lack of security testing prior to deployment, and the value these projects attract are the reasons hackers are flocking to this space.
Also, Blockchain security companies urge users to keep their private keys, as any funds lost in 2023 due to private keys will be due to mismanagement of the private keys.
2023 has already seen exploit incidents. On January 3, hackers stole $3.5 million worth of digital assets from the GMX whale.
Nevertheless, in the year 2022, December ended with the lowest value of DeFi exploited funds: it only lost $62 million in exploits.
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