The cryptocurrency industry faced a turbulent period in the second quarter of 2024 with a staggering $572.7 million lost to hacks and scams, as reported by Immunefi. This marked a significant increase from the previous quarter, demonstrating a 70.3% surge in losses. The prevalence of cybercrime targeted both CeFi and DeFi platforms, with CeFi experiencing a substantial hit of $401.4 million, compared to DeFi's $171.3 million losses. Notably, major incidents involving breaches at Japanese cryptocurrency trading platform DMM Bitcoin and the theft from BtcTurk dominated the headlines, contributing to 62.8% of the total losses in the quarter.
May 2024 stood out with the highest monthly losses totaling $358.5 million, while only 5% of the stolen funds were successfully traced back to their origins. The dominance of hacking incidents over scams was evident, with hacks accounting for 98.5% of the total funds lost, amounting to $564.2 million across 53 cases. Ethereum and BNB Chain were the primary targets for hacks, with Ethereum being the most affected network.
The report also highlighted a year-over-year increase in crypto losses, emphasizing the growing complexity and frequency of cybercrimes targeting digital currency businesses. The total losses from thefts, scams, and hacks since January 2018 showed a notable rise to $920.9 million in 2024. Mitchell Amador, CEO of Immunefi, noted that infrastructure compromises were responsible for several instances of high losses and emphasized the significant impact of hacking attacks on CeFi infrastructure in surpassing DeFi losses in Q2.
