Amid rising cases of crypto hacks, the Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has regarded October 2022 as the biggest month that crypto hackings have ever occurred, stressing that cases of crypto hacking could surpass 2021 as per a post.
In just October 2022 alone, it was documented that over $718 million worth of cryptocurrency has been hacked. This is unusual despite the fact that we are not yet into the middle of the month.
Chainalysis asserted that 11 different Decentralized Finance (DeFi) protocols were hit by hackers within the month under review leading to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars.
It was gathered that four separate hacking exploits took place on October 11 leading to the loss of about $122 million. In the sting operation, the hackers looted $200,000 in crypto by using a smart contract from crypto wallet Rabby Wallet.
In the same vein, $1.89 million was hacked from blockchain QANplatform’s Ethereum bridge. Another $2 million was stolen from TempleDAO and $188 million was taken away from the Solana-native Mango Markets.
While Chainalysis maintains that 2021 remains the year with the highest record of blockchain-based hacks in terms of total value hacked, the analytics firm did not rule out the possibility of 2022 surpassing it.
As of now, 125 crypto hacks have been recorded in only 2022 with over $3 billion squandered by hackers.
Tightening Security of Blockchain-based Projects
There is a compelling need to review and tighten the security of blockchain-based projects amid rising cases of crypto hacks. Chainalysis rightly pointed out that the biggest target for hackers is cross-chain bridges.
Decentralized exchanges have become hot spots for hackers given the increasing security instituted by centralized crypto exchanges.
The troubling hacking report has also been corroborated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which maintains that around $1.9 billion had been lost to cryptocurrencies in 2022.
The agency thus warned investors in DeFi projects to only pick interest in protocols with finished code audits so as to prevent smart contract vulnerabilities that might lead to loss of funds.
