Last Updated on 28 mins by Goran Radanovic

During the third quarter of 2023, the cryptocurrency landscape faced a dire setback as nefarious actors managed to pilfer an astounding $889.3 million through a combination of hacks, scams, and rug pulls. This staggering figure overshadowed the cumulative losses incurred during the first half of the year. Insight from Beosin experts reveals a breakdown of the losses: $540.16 million was drained away in 43 cyberattacks, while rug pulls and phishing scams collectively accounted for $282.96 million and $66.15 million in losses, respectively.

A significant portion of the onslaught, approximately 67.4%, targeted decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, constituting 29 separate attacks. The most substantial loss occurred during the Mixin Network hack, a grim event that saw a staggering $200 million vanish into thin air.

Prominent crypto platforms such as Curve, CoinEx, Alphapo, and Stake were not immune to the onslaught, reporting substantial losses. The rug pull category hit hard, particularly impacting Multichain, Bald, and Pepe, where losses ranged from $15.5 million to a staggering $210 million.

Ethereum and BNB Chain protocols, considered pillars of the cryptocurrency realm, also suffered significant damage in recent attacks, with hackers absconding with $227 million and $37.4 million, respectively. To compound the issue, the efforts to recover these stolen assets have thus far yielded only a meager 10% success rate.

In a contrasting development, crypto ransomware attacks exhibited a surprising trend in the first half of 2023. Although their frequency increased, the amount of illicit funds funneled into crime-related crypto addresses decreased by a substantial 65%. This shift was part of a larger narrative, as the crypto industry witnessed a noteworthy $5.2 billion reduction in inflows earmarked for criminal activities compared to the same period in 2022. However, despite this decline in resources available to attackers, they still managed to extract an additional $175.7 million through extortion by June 2023 compared to the first half of 2022.