In 2024, hackers have stolen more than $1.2 billion in cryptocurrencies, raising concerns about the mass adoption of digital assets.
Scale of Losses
According to an Immunefi report, the total amount of digital assets lost to hacks and rug pulls in 2024 year-to-date reached $1.21 billion, representing a 15.5% increase compared to the same period in 2023. This worrisome trend could lead to hackers surpassing the amount stolen in 2023, said Mitchell Amador, founder and CEO of Immunefi: “It’s difficult to make predictions, but the ecosystem is always at risk of one severe and successful exploit that could significantly increase these numbers. We must remain vigilant at all times to mitigate such risks.”
Decline in Hacks in August
Despite the increase in hacks in 2024 year-to-date, there has been a noticeable decline in the number of monthly hacks. Hackers stole over $15 million worth of crypto in August, which is a 94% decrease compared to the $274 million stolen in July. Most of this sum was lost in two major incidents: $9.8 million were stolen from the Ronin network, and $1.5 million during the Nexera exploit. Both incidents were linked to vulnerabilities introduced during code upgrades, noted Amador: “Both the Ronin and Convergence incidents this month were due to vulnerabilities introduced during code upgrades. Convergence clarified in their post-mortem that they had modified that part of the code post-audit, which highlights the critical importance of maintaining a security-first approach at every step.”
Risks of CeFi Infrastructure
Most of the losses in 2024 are attributed to attacks on centralized finance (CeFi) infrastructure. While we generally see a higher number of decentralized finance (DeFi) exploits, CeFi incidents can be more catastrophic and lead to hundreds of millions in stolen value. Amador explained: “Most of the losses in 2024 have been attributed to attacks on CeFi infrastructure. Although there were no reported or successful CeFi attacks this month, it doesn't necessarily mean these threats aren't occurring or won't lead to future losses.”
Hackers continue to actively target the crypto industry, forcing market participants to strengthen their security measures. The centralized finance infrastructure remains particularly vulnerable.
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