Record-High Crypto Exploits Steal $329 Million in September 2023: Report

Posted by cryptonews Crypto News October 23, 2023 95 Views

CertiK verified on September 30 that a total of roughly $332 million had been lost during the month of September due to different hacks, scams, and exploits.

According to CertiK, September 2023 has become the month with the highest number of crypto-related exploits. There were many different kinds of incidents in the crypto space in September. Flash loans caused losses of about $400,000, while exit scams caused losses of about $1.9 million. However, exploits accounted for the largest portion of the month’s total, with losses of about $329.8 million.

The September 23 Mixin Network attack was one noteworthy incident. Due to a breach at its cloud service provider, the decentralized cross-chain transfer protocol based in Hong Kong experienced a significant breach that cost $200 million.

On September 12, CoinEx, a cryptocurrency exchange, suffered a suspected attack after a significant outflow from four of its hot wallets. This was another significant event. The hot wallets lost more than $53.1 million as a result of this breach.

In addition, an attack on stake.com on September 4 cost the company $41 million. Several cryptocurrencies totaling that sum were received by an account during this incident and then dispersed to several addresses.

September Records Several Crypto Incidents, Contributing to Yearly Losses of Over $1.34 Billion

In the crypto world, September also saw a number of other significant events. A $24.2 million loss was caused by a phishing incident, and HTX Global lost $7.9 million. Entrepreneur Mark Cuban also disclosed a $900,000 personal loss for the month.

Losses on digital assets reached $45 million in August, for a total of $997 million so far this year. Notably, with $285.8 million stolen, July was the second-highest month for exploit losses. This raises the total amount of money lost to hacks, scams, and exploits in 2023 to an astounding $1.34 billion.

Furthermore, according to a BeosinAlert report, losses in the Web3 industry from phishing scams, rug pulls, and hacks totaled an alarming $889.26 million in Q3 2023. Compared to the combined losses from the first two quarters, which were $330 million in Q1 and $333 million in Q2, this quarterly amount is higher.

Lazarus Group, Linked to North Korea, Blamed for Multiple High-Value Crypto Attacks in 2023

According to reports, the majority of recent crypto-related attacks in 2023, such as the CoinEx exchange hack and the stake.com attack, were carried out by the North Korean hacker collective Lazarus Group. The $620 million theft from Sky Mavis’ Ronin Bridge, the $100 million theft from Harmony’s Horizon Bridge, and the $100 million theft from Atomic Wallet are among the other attacks that have been linked to the group.

The US government estimates that cybercrime and crypto theft provide about half of North Korea’s funding for its missile program. Research into how a country like North Korea is so skilled at cybercrime and crypto-related activities is still ongoing.

Data from Dune Analytics suggests that the group currently holds approximately $45.6 million in crypto assets. Additionally, a report from institutional crypto platform provider 21.co reveals that wallets linked to the Lazarus Group contain around 1,600 Bitcoin, 10,810 Ether (ETH), and 64,490 Binance Coin (BNB), totaling $47 million in cryptocurrency. This data was compiled from a Dune Analytics dashboard tracking 295 wallets identified by the US government as belonging to the Lazarus Group.

Notably, the amount of crypto held by the group has decreased from the $86 million it held on September 6, shortly after the Stake.com hack in which Lazarus was implicated.

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