Crypto Losses Near $600M in Q2 2024 – Study
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Crypto Losses Surge Over 70% in Q2 2024
According to Immunefi, a web3 security services firm, the crypto industry suffered $572.7 million in losses through hacks and scams in the second quarter of 2024. In a detailed analysis, Immunefi noted a substantial loss rise compared to the first quarter of 2024.
The second quarter’s losses were a 70.3% increase from the $336.3 million lost in the first quarter. The increase was even more pronounced compared to the same period last year, with losses up by 112% from $265.5 million in Q2 2023.
The study noted that cybercriminals primarily targeted the Centralized finance (CeFi) sector in Q2, overtaking decentralized finance (DeFi) as the main target in previous quarters. CeFi accounted for 70% of the losses, amounting to $401.4 million.
Nevertheless, DeFi still experienced significant attacks, with losses totaling $171.3 million, or 30% of the quarter’s total. Meanwhile, the majority of the losses were concentrated in two major incidents. Japanese cryptocurrency trading platform DMM Bitcoin suffered a $305 million exploit, the largest attack of the quarter. Turkish crypto exchange BtcTurk lost $55 million in an attack on June 23. These two incidents accounted for 62.8% of the total losses in Q2.
The Highest Monthly Losses of The Quarter
May 2024 marked the highest monthly losses of the quarter, with $358.5 million stolen in various incidents. Despite the significant financial damage, some projects made successful recovery efforts.
Four exploits involving ALEX Lab, Bloom, YOLO Games, and Gala Games resulted in the recovery of $28.7 million, representing 5% of the total stolen funds for the quarter. Furthermore, Immunefi’s report highlighted the dominance of hacks over other types of fraud in Q2.
Hacks accounted for 98.5% of the total losses, amounting to $564.2 million across 53 incidents. In contrast, cases of rug pulls, scams and fraud were responsible for only 1.5% of the total losses, with $8.5 million lost across 19 incidents.
The report also identified Ethereum and BNB Chain as the most targeted networks in Q2, continuing a trend seen in previous quarters. Ethereum was hit the hardest, with 34 incidents representing 46.6% of the total losses. BNB Chain followed with 18 incidents, accounting for 24.7% of the losses.
Immunefi Paid Over $100M to Ethical Hackers in 3 Years
Immunefi emphasized the need for robust security measures across the entire crypto ecosystem in response to these escalating threats. Immunefi founder and CEO Mitchell Amador pointed out that infrastructure compromises can be devastating.
He stressed the importance of safeguarding CeFi and DeFi platforms to prevent similar losses in the future. Over the past three years, Immunefi’s proactive approach to security has resulted in over $100 million in payouts (in more than 3,000 bug bounty reports) to ethical hackers and researchers.
The platform claims to have saved over $25 billion in user funds by identifying and addressing vulnerabilities across various protocols, such as Optimism, Polygon, Chainlink, Synthetix, The Graph, and MakerDAO.
Andromeda and Injective Partner for DeFi Growth
Meanwhile, Andromeda and Injective have announced a strategic integration to accelerate the adoption of decentralized finance (DeFi). This partnership brings together Andromeda, the first Web3 Operating System, and Injective, a blockchain developed for financial applications, to enhance their technological capabilities and explore new economic opportunities.
The primary objective of this collaboration is to create a unified trading platform that facilitates tokenized asset management. This platform will enable users to tokenize, fractionalize easily, and trade digital assets, unlocking new avenues for greater investment and asset diversification.
Mant Hawkins, a core contributor, stated that the integration would combine Andromeda’s on-chain Operating System with Injective’s scalable Layer 1 protocol. He noted that this approach would enhance multi-chain composability and drive innovation in the DeFi space.
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