The crypto community has seen a growing number of hacks in the first two months of 2024. Widely reported by Bitcoinist, hackers and scammers have targeted high-profile figures and projects within the industry.
According to PeckShield, a crypto investigator focused on security, February saw an over 97.6% Month-on-Month (MoM) rise in the total value of cryptocurrencies stolen from the attacks.
Over 21 Crypto Attacks Across February
On an X post, blockchain investigator PeckShield revealed a massive MoM increase in the total value of stolen funds. In February, hackers stole around $360.83 million during the crypto heists.
January saw the theft of $182.54 million, per PeckShield’s previous report. This means that, in comparison, last month saw a 96.7% increase in the total value stolen.
#PeckShieldAlert Hackers stole ~$360.83m across over 21 attacks in February 2024, marking a MoM increase of 97.6% compared to January 2024. Additionally, ~1.8% of the stolen funds have been returned, totaling ~$6.7 million pic.twitter.com/MCykceNun5
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) March 1, 2024
However, the 21 hacks represent a 30% drop in individual attacks compared to January. The first month of the year registered 30 different hacks, including that of Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen on the very last day of the month.
The exploit of Larsen’s addresses accounted for 70% of the total value stolen in January. Similarly, the PlayDapp hack that occurred at the beginning of February accounts for approximately 71% of the stolen funds during that month.
The report also reveals that only 1.8% of the stolen funds have been retrieved, with only $6.7 million out of the total $360 million being restored. Most of the recovered funds proceeded from the negotiation with the hacker involved in the Seneca attack, which ended in the return of $5.3 million.
Top Three Attacks Of The Month
These high-profile attacks seemingly targeted multiple figures and projects inside the crypto community. According to the report, the projects and individuals that suffered the biggest loss include PlayDapp, FixedFloat, and the Axie Infinity co-founder.
Undoubtedly, the biggest loser this past month was the popular web3 gaming platform PlayDapp, with the heist of 200 million PLA tokens initially.
Later, the project suffered the loss of another 1.4 billion tokens after failed attempts to negotiate with the criminal(s) involved. The hacker’s bonanza resulted in the loss of $290 million for the gaming platform, which ultimately decided to migrate to a new token to protect customers.
In the second place, the decentralized finance (DeFi) crypto exchange FlixedFloat suffered the theft of almost $26 million in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) midway through the month.
The hackers dispersed the funds to muddle the tracing of the tokens. The stolen Bitcoin was distributed between multiple addresses, while the ETH funds were sent to externally owned accounts and the centralized mixer eXch.
Lastly, with over $9.7 million worth of Ether stolen, Jeff ‘Jihoz’ Zirlin suffered the third-largest loss. The Axie Infinity co-founder fell victim to the hack of two of his addresses. Zirlin’s attack allegedly occurred due to “leaked keys,” which allowed the hacker to withdraw 3,248 ETH that were immediately ‘tornado cashed.’
These recent numbers suggest the increase of stolen funds at an alarming rate. A previous report from PeckShield revealed that the total value of stolen crypto funds in 2023 was around $342 million.
Last year’s value represented a 25% reduction from 2022. However, the high-profile hacks of the first two months of 2024 have already surpassed the total value of the year before.
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