Crypto Theft Surges: Traders lose $1.4bn to hackers in H1 2024

BY MOTOLANI OSENI

Cryptocurrency traders, worldwide, lost $1.4 billion to hackers in the first half of this year, according to analysts at the cryptocurrency analytics company TRM Labs.

According to the report, the total amount of money that hackers took from January to June 2024 more than doubled that of the previous year over the same period. In the first half of 2023, the value of stolen cryptos stood at $657 million.

TRM Labs further disclosed that similar to 2023, a small number of large attacks made up the lion’s share of the haul in 2024 as the top five hacks and exploits accounted for 70 per cent of the total amount stolen so far this year.

It added that private key and seed phrase compromises remain a top attack vector in 2024, alongside smart contract exploits and flash loan attacks.

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The greatest attack to date, according to the research, occurred in 2024 on the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange DMM Bitcoin; the theft resulted in the theft of over 4,500 BTC, valued at over USD 300 million at the time.

“While the exact cause of the attack remains unknown, potential vectors include stolen private keys or address poisoning—a tactic wherein attackers send tiny amounts of cryptocurrency to a victim’s wallet to create fake transaction histories, potentially confusing users into sending funds to the wrong address in future transactions,” TRM Labs stated.

The researchers added that more money was stolen during each of the first six months of 2024 than in the corresponding months in 2023, with the median hack 150% larger. However, thefts from hacks and exploits are a third below the same period in 2022, which remains a record year.

To date, TRM has observed no fundamental changes in the security of the cryptocurrency ecosystem that may explain this upward trend; nor have we found significant differences in attack vectors or the number of attacks between the first halves of 2023 and 2024.

“However, the past six months did see significantly higher average token prices compared to this period last year; this is likely to have contributed to the increased theft volumes,” the researchers said.