In less than 2 weeks, October is already the worst month of the year in terms of decentralized finance (DeFi) hacks. Cross-chain bridges remain, unsurprisingly, the favorite targets of hackers for their significant liquidity and their often exploitable flaws. According to a report by Chainalysis, 2022 is set to be the worst year in terms of hacks.
Hacks are raining in this month of October
According to a report published by Chainalysis dated October 11the current month is already the worst of the year in terms of cryptocurrency hacks – and there are still about 20 days before this one ends.
1/ After four hacks yesterday, October is now the biggest month in the biggest year ever for hacking activity, with more than half the month still to go. So far this month, $718 million has been stolen from #Challenge protocols across 11 different hacks. pic.twitter.com/emz36f6gpK
— Chainalysis (@chainalysis) October 12, 2022
Indeed, over the 11 days preceding the report, these are $720 million that was stolen through 11 different hacks in the field of decentralized finance (DeFi). In total, over the current year, more than 3 billion dollars have already been stolen in the form of cryptocurrencies through no less than 125 hacks.
If the rest of the year unfolds on the same trends, 2022 could well be the worst year in terms of DeFi hacks, while 2021 had already surpassed previous records. It should also be noted that the day after the publication of this data by Chainalysis, the Mango Markets platform, hosted on the Solana (SOL) blockchain, suffered a loss of $114 million following price manipulation.
Annual amounts hacked in the cryptocurrency ecosystem
With the $560 million BSC Token Hub hack and that of Mango Markets, the BNB Chain and Solana are currently the blockchains having suffered the heaviest losses this month, as this graph from The Block Data clearly shows:
Amounts stolen sorted by period and by blockchain
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Bridges, now favorite targets for hackers
We can also see that from the year 2015 to the year 2019, exchanges remained the favorite targets of hackers. However, the latter have worked considerably for the security of the hosted funds, and have gradually been neglected by malicious individuals. for the benefit of decentralized finance.
Indeed, since 2020, we can see a considerable increase in hacks in the DeFi sector. Over the current year, 90% of the hacks come from the latter.
Classification of hacks by targeted sector
Unsurprisingly, cross-chain bridges remain targets for hackers looking for large sums, the latter being important sources of liquidity by their intrinsic structure and tend to have exploitable flaws. For exemple, 82% of funds stolen this month came from cross-chain bridges.
Graphic diagram of cryptocurrencies stolen via bridges (in blue) compared to other types of hack (in yellow)
According Jasper Leetechnical manager at the audit company Soohio.io, still too many protocols relativize their security:
“For protocols or dApps [applications décentralisées ; NDLR] that have not been thoroughly audited, they are easy and reliable short-term profit. Badly protected protocols are easy fruits for hackers, who take advantage of their too easily accessible locks. »
👉 In hacks news – BNB Chain successfully executes a hard fork to secure its network after the hack
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Source: CoinDesk
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Passionate about the world of decentralized finance and the novelties brought by Web 3.0, I write articles for Cryptoast to help make blockchain more accessible to everyone. Convinced that cryptocurrencies will change the future very soon.
Maximilien Prue
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