Crypto Industry Faces $1.4 Billion in Losses

The crypto industry has surpassed $1.4 billion in losses this year due to 179 hacks and scams, according to the latest report from web3 bug bounty and security services platform Immunefi.

While there was a 56.6% month-over-month drop in October, with losses of $55.1 million compared to $126.9 million in September, 2024's figures now represent a 1% decrease year-over-year.

> "In general, losses appear to be trending downward," said Immunefi Head of Security Gonçalo Magalhães in an interview with The Block. He noted that projects are adopting more robust security measures, including enhanced auditing processes, improved smart contract designs, and bug bounty programs. With more skilled security professionals available, the current security stack is significantly more mature than it was 2-3 years ago, making it harder for hackers to exploit vulnerabilities.

Losses in October

October’s losses stemmed from seven specific incidents, representing the second-lowest monthly loss year-to-date, but a 114% increase compared to October 2023. Most losses came from two projects: a $50 million hack of DeFi protocol Radiant Capital and a $4.4 million exploit of Tapioca DAO. Other DeFi losses were attributed to P719, Morpho Labs, Ramses Exchange, HYDT, and Fire. There were no recorded CeFi incidents in this month.

Hacks were the primary cause of losses, accounting for 100% of October's figures.

Targeted Networks

BNB Chain was the most targeted network, accounting for 50% of October’s attacks, while Ethereum and Arbitrum represented 25% of the exploits each. Earlier this month, Immunefi identified Ethereum as the top blockchain choice for whitehat hackers, with Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Solana also gaining traction.

Immunefi has paid out over $100 million in bug bounties over the past three years, stemming from more than 3,000 reports. The largest payout was a $10 million reward for a vulnerability discovered in Wormhole’s cross-chain protocol.

Immunefi claims to have the largest blockchain security community, with over 45,000 researchers, saving over $25 billion in user funds across protocols like Polygon, Optimism, Chainlink, The Graph, Synthetix, and MakerDAO (Sky) from theft.