Hackers have become more sophisticated and continue to rake in billions of dollars from cryptographic exploits.
The good news? There isn’t: 2024 has officially surpassed last year’s stolen funds total, with months of hacks adding to an already record year.
In the third quarter of 2024, blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs reported that more than $2.2 billion was stolen in crypto hacks, surpassing the $1.8 billion lost in all of 2023.
Now, as the year draws to a close, the total continues to climb. The analysis reveals that the thefts were not limited to the experimental world of decentralized finance, or DeFi; centralized crypto exchanges were also prime targets.
Here are the biggest crypto heists of 2024.
$308 million in Bitcoin DMM
Japanese crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin lost more than 4,500 BTC, worth $308 million at the time, to hackers in May.
It is unclear how the hackers managed to steal the exchange, but TRM Labs said the theft of private keys was a plausible explanation.
The company continues to close and transfer customer accounts to another exchange, SBI VC Trade, which takes over its assets.
PlayDapp’s $290 million
The pirates target crypto gaming platform PlayDapp twice in February by exploiting a private key vulnerability. They took away $290 million in PLA tokens during the two incidents.
The attackers also ignored a $1 million reward as a reward for returning the stolen funds. To date, funds are still lacking.
WazirX’s $235 million
Indian crypto exchange WazirX was also target in June, hackers made off with nearly $235 million.
WazirX suspended all withdrawals, leaving users unable to access their funds after the hack. Elliptic said the attack was linked to North Korea.
The exchange’s parent company, Zettai Pte Ltd, was granted a four-month moratorium from the Singapore High Court in August in a bid to put its finances in order.
Things took a strange turn in October when the co-founder of rival exchange CoinSwitch accused WazirX of moving $75 million in user funds to major exchanges Bybit and KuCoin following the attack.
WazirX has since then I have said that it is “rebalancing the chips” and that customers will soon be informed of the next steps to repay creditors.
$112.5 million from Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen
On January 30, hackers targeted the XRP stash of Ripple co-founder and executive chairman Chris Larsen. The crypto entrepreneur wrote on .
It was nevertheless a large-scale attack, and blockchain detective ZachXBT said the hackers took around 213 million XRP, or $112.5 million at the time, before launder them through exchanges. Efforts to recover the stolen property were unsuccessful.
$80 million from Orbit Chain
The year started with a major DeFi breach, as hackers drained over $80 million from the Orbit Chain cross-chain bridge project on January 1. The criminals took off with Ethereum and the stablecoin DAI in the exploit, then fell silent.
Months later, millions of dollars in stolen crypto were recovered. moved to the Tornado Cash coin mixer. Aside from a January statement apologizing for the exploit, the team behind the project has since given little news about what happened or how it would recover the stolen funds.
$54 million from BtcTurk
On June 22, hackers target Turkish crypto exchange BtCTurk, which caters to the country’s burgeoning market. Most of the funds took the form of Avalanche (AVAX), the 12th largest digital asset by market capitalization.
The exchange reassured users that most of the funds, kept in cold storage, were safe. Meanwhile, a day after the hack, Binance CEO Richard Teng said its exchange had frozen $5.3 million in stolen funds to support BtcTurk’s efforts.
Radiant Capital’s $50 million
In October, hackers hit DeFi project Radiant Capital is “one of the most sophisticated hacks ever recorded in DeFi,” earning $50 million in tokens at the time.
The breach occurred after a Radiant developer received a Telegram message from what appeared to be a former contractor, the protocol said. The message contained a PDF file, which was then used to spread malware and then take control of several private keys, allowing hackers to steal USDT, USDCAnd ARA tokens.
Radiant Capital, which allows users to earn interest and borrow cryptocurrencies, has since said North Korean hackers were behind the attack.
The 20 million dollars from the American government
Even pirates target the federal government this year, with the disappearance in October of more than $20 million in stablecoins and Ethereum from a government wallet containing funds seized from criminals.
The crypto in question was linked to a previous hack of the Bitfinex exchange in 2016. The hackers sent the coins and tokens to a new address, prompting pseudonymous blockchain detective ZachXBT to say he It was probably a theft.
Then, the next day, nearly $19.3 million of the confiscated funds were returned to the wallet, according to data collected by Arkham Intelligence. It’s still unclear what happened to the rest of the stolen crypto or why the hackers returned it in the first place.
Edited by Sébastien Sinclair
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