Hackers and cryptocurrency scammers made off with $452 million in the first quarter of 2023, according to a report published by antivirus and app provider De.Fi. But it is good news and bad news, since the losses were less than the USD 1.3 billion of the first quarter of 2022. However, the recovery rate also decreased.
According to the report, almost half of the losses this quarter ($215 million) occurred in the first three weeks of March. The Euler Finance and Bonq DAO exploits were the loss leaders for the quarter, at $196 million and $120 million, respectively. Due to them, the Ethereum blockchain suffered the biggest losses, although Binance Chain surpassed them with 18 incidents to ten on Ethereum.
The CoinDeal scam came in third, with $45 million, and the Monkey Drainer phishing scammers, in fourth, with $16.5 million.
In the 49 cases examined in the report, six flash loan attacks accounted for the largest losses, at more than $200 million, with Euler Finance accounting for the lion’s share of the total. Smart contract exploits were the most common type, with 17 incidents. Decentralized finance (DeFi) only accounted for five incidents, but suffered the lion’s share of losses, at $336 million.
REPORT: $452 MILLION WAS LOST IN CRYPTO IN Q1 2023
• In Q1 2023, Crypto lost x3 less than in Q1 2022: $452M vs $1.3B
• Top 4 REKT Chains are: $ETH, $MATIC, $ARB, $BNB
• The Biggest REKT: Euler Finance ($196M Stolen)
âš¡ï¸ Read the Reporthttps://t.co/QxwgDWI8Jq
— De.Fi ï¸ Web3 Antivirus (@DeDotFiSecurity) March 31, 2023
In the first quarter, USD 130 million was recovered from the exploits. All of that money was recovered in March and almost all of it, 129 million, was due to money returned by Euler Finance hackers. In the first quarter of last year, USD 520 million of the USD 1.3 billion lost had been returned, that is, 40% of the stolen funds, compared to 28.7% this year.
Although DeFi dominated the reported losses, it is likely that losses on decentralized exchanges and crypto tokens and non-fungible tokens affected retail users as well. Theft is not uncommon for retail users, and the scams affecting them are constantly evolving.
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