The crypto industry saw its second lowest monthly losses this month, November 2024, with $71 million lost across 26 incidents, according to blockchain security firm Immunefi.
This is a significant improvement from November 2023, which saw $343 million in losses, representing a 79% year-over-year and 4% month-on-month decline. the other.
Year-to-date figures show the industry lost $1.48 billion in 2024 due to hacks and rug pulling in 209 incidents. This represents a 15% drop from the $1.7 billion lost over the same period in 2023.
November Tips
According to Immunefi, two incidents were responsible for most of November’s losses. DeFi project Thala Labs lost $25.5 million, while memecoin trading terminal DEXX suffered a loss of $21 million.
The company noted that all cases reported for the month involved DeFi platforms, which have overtaken centralized finance (CeFi) as their primary target. DeFi incidents accounted for 100% of lost funds.
At the same time, hacks remain the leading cause of losses, with $70.99 million lost in 24 hacking incidents. Rug pulls contributed a lesser amount, with a loss of $25,300 in two cases.
Among the chains, Binance-backed BNB Chain was the most targeted blockchain, responsible for almost 47% of the total losses across all chains. He added:
“Ethereum experienced 9 incidents, representing 30% of the total. Solana, Polygon, Fantom, Avalanche, Arbitrum and Aptos each experienced one incident, representing 3.3% respectively.
CEXs dominate 50% of crypto losses in 2024
Centralized exchanges (CEXs) have become a significant target in 2024, accounting for nearly 50% of total crypto losses since the start of the year. Immunefi reported that CEX losses amounted to $724 million, representing the highest share of attacks on centralized platforms since 2021.
The resurgence of CEX vulnerabilities became particularly evident in the third quarter of the year, when 72% of crypto losses came from CeFi hacks. As a reminder, a single attack on the Indian exchange WazirX in July resulted in a loss of $235 million.
Immunefi pointed out that CeFi vulnerabilities often come from compromised hot wallets, allowing attackers to drain substantial funds. The $724 million lost by CEXs in 2024 came from just nine incidents, while a similar amount in DeFi was spread across 200 attacks.
The security company highlighted that blackhat hackers have adopted innovative methods to exploit centralized platforms.
These techniques include impersonating recruiters or obtaining fake internships to infiltrate internal teams and infrastructures. These threats often go unnoticed until significant damage occurs, underscoring their increasing sophistication.
