Crypto Losses Hit $320 Mln in Q1 of 2023

The crypto losses in the first quarter of this year due to hacks recorded more than $320 million, according to data collected by leading blockchain security company Certik in its report on the first quarter. 

It is worth noting that the crypto losses in the first and last quarters of 2022 were higher than the 2023’s figure, Certik said, attributing the decline in the crypto losses due to events that happened globally and had an impact on the crypto industry, including the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank and Silvergate Bank and the de-pegging of the US dollar. 

As for incidents and the amount lost per blockchain, Ethereum lost the largest amount of crypto due to hacks in the first quarter of 2023 ($221 million), although it has only 29 incidents, lower than BNB Chain, which had the highest number of incidents it lost only $23.9 million. 

Certik report also shed light on the hack on Euler Finance in March, as more than $195 million were lost through a flash loan exploit. Later, about 90% of the lost crypto was recovered on April 4 after nearly one month-negotiations with the hacker. 

In 2022, the crypto industry lost more than $3.94 billion, a report by Immunefi, Web3’s leading bug bounty platform, revealed. 

According to Immunefi’s Crypto Losses in 2022 Report, hacks were the main reason for these losses, accounting for 95.6%, while rug pulls, scams, and fraud represented only 4.4% of the total losses. Because of hacks, the crypto industry lost over $3.77 billion in 2022 in 134 specific incidents, according to Coin Telegraph. 

These abovementioned figures represented a 58.3% increase compared to 2021. In 2021, the crypto industry lost around $2.384 billion only due to the hacks. 

Regarding the affected blockchains, the report found that BNB of Binance and Ethereum blockchains were the most targeted chains in 2022, accounting for 63.3% of attacks on the chains. BNB was more affected than Ethereum, with 65 incidents, representing 36.1%. While Ethereum represented 27.2% of the attacks with 49 incidents.