Last month, the crypto space experienced significant losses totaling $313 million due to more than ten different hacks.
August Cases
According to a post by blockchain security firm PeckShield, two major phishing attacks accounted for $293.4 million of the total stolen funds. In the first case, an unknown whale lost over 4,000 bitcoin (BTC), worth an estimated $238 million at the time, after falling victim to a phishing scheme. The funds were reportedly moved around several platforms, including THORChain and Railgun, making recovery near impossible. In the second attack, another large crypto holder saw about $55.4 million worth of Dai (DAI) transferred from their wallet without authorization. The perpetrator allegedly swapped the funds for their Ethereum (ETH) equivalent. Additionally, the Ronin Network also fell victim to a significant exploit. Although $12 million was recovered from the attacker, unauthorized transactions amounting to $5.1 million were still lost. Another notable episode involved decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Nexera, which suffered a theft of $1.83 million due to a smart contract manipulation. An additional report by bug bounty platform Immunefi shows that as of last month, the crypto industry has lost $1.21 billion in digital assets due to hacks and rug pulls year-to-date. Interestingly, that analysis characterized crypto losses in August as some of the lowest in 2024, amounting to about $15 million from five different incidents, which was more than 94% lower than what was lost in July.
WazirX Still in the News
The main cause of the high amount lost in July was the hacking of WazirX. The Indian crypto exchange lost $234.9 million from one of its multisig wallets. In response to the massive breach, the company is now implementing a phased plan to restore its financial operations. The beleaguered exchange recently provided an update, announcing that it had filed a moratorium with the Singapore High Court under the city-state’s Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act of 2018. A moratorium is legal protection under Singapore law, where WazirX is registered, that shields the applicant from actions by creditors, such as winding-up proceedings and enforcement of security. During the moratorium, these legal actions are put on hold. WazirX further explained in an accompanying blog post that it anticipates a planned restructuring where the impact of the exploit will be allocated pro-rata across users classified as unsecured creditors.
August was marked by various cybersecurity incidents in the crypto space. Efforts to recover the lost funds are ongoing, and companies are implementing new measures to prevent recurring attacks.
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