More than $208.5 million in decentralized finance (DeFi) was lost to hacking and fraud in the second quarter of 2023. Some of the money was recovered, but the total loss amounted to more than $204 million.
According to a report based on data from the analytics service Rekt Database of the De.Fi application, hackers managed to steal more than $208.5 million between April and June 2023, of which $4.5 million was recovered thanks to agreements with hackers or successful investigations.
According to De.Fi, the number of hacking attacks in the DeFi sector in the second quarter of 2023 increased by more than 580%, compared to the same period last year. Thus, there were 117 cases in three months compared to 17 attacks in the second quarter of 2022. In total, hackers managed to steal more than $665 million in cryptocurrency this year.
The three most significant attacks in the second quarter of this year resulted in more than 45% of the total amount stolen in the indicated period:
- Atomic Wallet attack. Hackers withdrew about $35 million.
- Withdrawal scams on the Fintoch platform. Attackers stole $30.6 million.
- MEV-Boost attack. The amount of losses was $26.1 million.
The most common fraudulent tricks in the second quarter of 2023 were:
- Unauthorized access to wallets, which resulted in hackers stealing about $75.8 million in cryptocurrency from users.
- Exploitation of vulnerabilities that allowed hackers to withdraw about $55.3 million from various DeFi protocols.
- Withdrawal fraud (Rug Pull), which led to the loss of $47.3 million.
It’s worth noting that losses from hacking and fraud in the DeFi sector in the second quarter of 2023 were still 36% less than in the first quarter. Thus, according to CertiK, attackers stole about $320 million in cryptocurrency between January and March. However, the DeFi sector is still the most vulnerable to hacker attacks.
