In comparison to the same moment last year, cryptocurrency hackers have taken more than 15.5% more in 2024 thus far.

Since August’s attacks, cryptocurrency hackers have taken over $1.2 billion in value, which raises more questions regarding the adoption of cryptocurrencies widely.

In 2024, 154 distinct exploits resulted in the loss of digital assets worth an overall of $1.21 billion to hackers and rug pulls in the cryptocurrency sector.

Based on an Immunefi analysis given with Cointelegraph, this is a 15.5% rise over the same time in 2023, when losses came to just over $1 billion.

Mitchell Amador, the founder and chief executive officer of Immunefi, said that the concerning trend may result in cryptocurrency hackers taking more than they took in 2023. He stated to Cointelegraph:

Although forecasting is challenging, the ecosystem remains vulnerable to one serious and effective exploit that might greatly raise these figures. To reduce such threats, we have to be alert at all times.

The second-largest cryptocurrency breach of 2024 thus far occurred more than a month ago when a hacker took around $230 million from WazirX, an Indian cryptocurrency exchange.

In August, monthly hacks drop by 94%

Even if the amount of hacking in 2024 has already exceeded that of the previous year, there has been a discernible drop in the monthly total of hacks.

August saw over $15 million in cryptocurrency hackers stolen, 94% lower than the $274 million taken in July.

The majority of this amount was lost in two significant events: the $1.5 million Nexera exploit and the $9.8 million Ronin Network attack.

Immunefi’s Amador pointed out that both exploits originate from a vulnerability during code upgrade:

This month’s mishaps at Ronin and Convergence were both caused by vulnerability identified during code updates. Convergence made it clear in their an autopsy that they had changed [that] portion of the code after the audit, which emphasizes how crucial it is to always put security first.

The majority of the expenses in 2024 are associated with CeFi infrastructure

The largest weakness in crypto security is still centralized finance (CeFi), even if DeFi (decentralized finance) accounted for all of the attacks in August.

Even though DeFi exploits are more common, Amador clarified that CeFi occurrences can be more devastating and result in hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of stolen value:

Attacks on the CeFi infrastructure have been blamed for the majority of the losses in 2024. Even if there were no successful or documented CeFi attacks last month, this does not preclude the possibility that similar threats will materialize in the future or cause damages.

Immunefi is a well-known onchain crowdsourced cybersecurity technology that protects customer funds worth over $190 billion.

Currency Redefined: Crypto hacks exceed $1.2B in 2024, with Celsius repaying $2.5B

With $1.2 billion taken so far, cryptocurrency hackers could break the record set in 2023. Celsius is also starting to pay back its creditors.

Introduction to the Finance Redefined, a newsletter designed to provide you with the most important developments from the previous week. This is your weekly dose of crucial DeFi (decentralized finance) information.

This week, there was unsettling news. In 2024, nearly $1.2 billion was stolen by cryptocurrency hackers —a 15.5% rise over 2023. Are they going to surpass the entire amount pilfered in 2023?

More good news for investors: after paid $2.53 billion to 251,000 creditors, bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius has at last made two-thirds of its clients whole. Over 375,000 debtors are owed a sum of $3 billion by Celsius.

251,000 creditors receive $2.5 billion from Celsius as part of bankruptcy procedures

As per the Celsius bankruptcy administrator, in excess of 121,000 creditors have not made any claims about their funds.

As part of its much awaited bankruptcy proceedings, Celsius has reimbursed two thirds of its qualified consumers.

A court document dated August 26 states that the insolvent cryptocurrency lender has paid back around $2.53 billion to 251,000 creditors.

The payments made in bankruptcy are a good thing for the growing cryptocurrency market. These take place concurrently with the Mt. Gox exchange’s bankruptcy proceedings. The exchange owed 127,000 creditors in cryptocurrency totaling over $9.4 billion. These creditors are now starting to get their possessions back after ten years.

Not every creditor wants to get their cryptocurrency back

Because of the little amount owed, not every creditors are aggressively seeking to retrieve their cryptocurrency.

This is because, according to the filing, 41,000 creditors are due between $100 and $1,000, and 64,000 may be a minimum of $100 worth of cryptocurrency. The other 121,000 creditors have not yet claimed their funds.

Most of these creditors have modest amounts at stake, thus they might not be motivated to take the necessary actions to properly assert a distribution.

Every two weeks, the bankruptcy’s manager will attempt to distribute to these creditors again using Coinbase, and PayPal claim codes will always be usable for credits.

The story of Celsius’s bankruptcy: What you should know

July 2022 saw Celsius file for bankruptcy, one month after it had stopped accepting user withdrawals.

The company stated that after the cost of its native token, Celsius (CEL), crashed in 2022, the halt was required to better position it to pay its withdrawal obligations over time.

Celisus’s bankruptcy resulted in agreements with the US Department of Law, the SEC, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, and the US Federal Trade Commission totaling $4.7 billion in fines. Mashinsky is free on a $40 million loan while awaiting trial in September after entering a not guilty plea.

Approximately 80% of cryptocurrency hacks never see a price recovery

After an attack, crypto protocols typically suffer actual harm, however certain tokens are more durable than others.

The most recent onchain security assessment indicates that most compromised cryptocurrencies are not able to recover their prices from the exploit.

Six months after the breach, almost 77.8% of hijacked coins experienced persistently negative price impacts.

Furthermore, an Immunefi analysis shared with Cointelegraph shows that six months after the system was breached, 51.1% of hacked tokens witnessed price drops of more than 50%.

However, according to Immunefi’s founder and CEO Mitchell Amador, compromised procedures bear the brunt of the harm long after the attack. He stated to Cointelegraph:

The millions missed to the hack foreshadow many greater losses due to the effect on the market and dependencies, as well as many lost months of work spent trying to reconstruct your operations and team after it was emotionally destroyed.

The study is released almost a month after the second-largest cryptocurrency breach of 2024—a cryptocurrency hackers took almost $230 million through WazirX, an Indian cryptocurrency trading platform.

CeFi is still the largest susceptibility for cryptocurrency hackers

The majority of digital asset exploitation in the past have been attributed to decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.

But according to Amador, who stated that infrastructure compromises typically result in the most catastrophic hacks in the cryptocurrency world, centralized finance (CeFi) infrastructure has grown to be the largest weakness for the industry, accounting for the majority of losses in 2024. For instance, all money under its control will be stolen if a private key is compromised.

Sixty-six million of the $1.19 billion in digital assets that have been taken so far in 2024 are linked to CeFi vulnerabilities.

The massive quantity of money that may result in hundreds of millions of dollars in stolen bounties is the reason why cryptocurrency hackers are increasingly focusing on CeFi infrastructure, such as cryptocurrency exchanges, according to Amador.

Immunefi is a well-known onchain crowdsourced cybersecurity technology that protects customer funds worth over $190 billion.

More established cryptocurrency projects sustain fewer losses after a hack

Following an exploit, some cryptocurrencies perform better.

According to Amador, tokens with a more seasoned staff who have previously been a part of bigger projects are more resistant to exploits:

Projects like BNB Chain, SushiSwap, THORChain, Olympus, and Optimism are among those with recovered tokens. Like Optimism or BNB Chain, most of these projects are either massive ecosystems in and of themselves, or they are established protocols with a devoted user base, like SushiSwap.

As the amount of money stolen in 2024 may exceed that of the previous year, cryptocurrency hackers continue to be one of the largest obstacles to the widespread use of cryptocurrencies.

Above $200 million have been stolen to hacks so far this year as of February 29. This represents an over than 15% increase over the same moment in 2023, when digital assets valued at $173 million were taken.

Over 900 investigations have been conducted by the white hat “SEAL” team to prevent cryptocurrency hacks

At the decentralized finance Security Conference at Devcon in November, the crypto security team is getting ready to open up a battlefield for cryptocurrency hackers and crypto protocols.

An elite “SEAL” team of ethical hackers was formed in reaction to the increasing risk of cryptocurrency hackers in order to fortify defenses and stop breaches worse than those that occurred in 2023.

Since its founding in August 2023, the anti-hack response team SEAL (Security Alliance), under the direction of white hat hacker and Paradigm researcher Samczsun, has fielded over 900 tickets pertaining to hacking.

During his keynote address at the Web3 Summit in Berlin, Samczsun said that the program will provide a battlefield between white hat hackers and new protocols in order to strengthen protocols’ resistance to cyberattacks:

In the future, researchers will be able to evaluate their procedures in a live hostile environment that we host. In this manner, the teams are able to navigate the protocol and ensure that it works in high-stress scenarios. Additionally, researchers can assess their abilities as either white hats or black hats.

The decentralized financial Security Summit in Devcon will feature Battle.net, the initiative’s debut event, on November 7 and 9.

The white hat project was launched almost a month after the second-biggest cryptocurrency breach of 2024—a hacker took around $230 million from WazirX, an Indian digital currency exchange.

White hat hackers are protected by the Safe Harbor agreement

Ethical hackers, sometimes known as “white hats,” may be breaking the law in an attempt to recover embezzled money.

This is due to the fact that many international laws forbid unauthorized access to computer systems, which would make it unlawful to recover funds from stolen smart contracts.

The Whitehat Safe Harbor Agreement, a legal structure that offers financial support to white hat hackers facing legal action, was issued by SEAL in order to shield them from unfair legal repercussions, as samczsun explained:

Together with the Security Researcher Legal Defense Fund, we also prepared certain white hat defenses. Another foundation with the goal of supporting security researchers tackling legal challenges is the SDF.

2024 will probably see more cryptocurrency hackers than 2023 did

The anti-hack campaign is launched at a critical juncture, as cryptocurrency hackers pose a threat to eclipse their accomplishments from the previous year.

From $200 million have been taken to hacks year-to- as of February 29. This represents an over than 15% increase over the same moment in 2023, when digital assets valued at $173 million were taken.

If the present rate of exploits continues, cryptocurrency hackers may surpass last year, according to Mar Guimenez-Aguilar, principal security architect at Halborn cybersecurity company.

The specialist in cybersecurity told Cointelegraph:

With the quantity and intensity of attacks that 2024 has seen so far, there have been almost 14 occurrences among the top 100 hacks, or almost two attacks every month on average. Should this pattern persist, by year’s end there may be roughly 24 attacks, marginally more than in 2023.

A study by onchain security company Immunefi found that following a breach or attack, the price of nearly 80% of cryptocurrencies never recovers. Projects are frequently harmed more by this devaluation than by the actual exploit.