In the second quarter of 2024, the landscape of cryptocurrency losses underwent a notable transformation. Centralized finance (CeFi) platforms experienced a surge in financial losses due to cyber exploits, accounting for 70% of the total losses in the crypto sector. This data comes from the latest findings by Immunefi, a leading bug bounty and security services provider.
Conversely, decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms reported 30% of the total losses, marking a significant shift from previous periods where CeFi platforms were not as heavily impacted. Specifically, CeFi platforms incurred losses amounting to $401.4 million across five separate incidents, representing an alarming 984% increase from the $37 million lost in the same quarter of the previous year.
In contrast, DeFi platforms witnessed a decrease in losses by 25%, with a total of $171.3 million lost across 62 incidents, down from $228.5 million in the second quarter of 2023.
Mitchell Amador, the Founder and CEO of Immunefi, emphasized the quarter’s revelation that compromises to infrastructure can result in the most catastrophic hacks within the crypto space. A single breach can lead to multimillion-dollar damages, as was particularly evident in this quarter’s attacks on CeFi infrastructure, which outnumbered those on DeFi platforms.
Amador stressed the importance of implementing robust security measures across the entire crypto ecosystem to prevent such devastating losses.
The report also highlighted that Ethereum and BNB Chain were the most affected blockchain platforms, with combined losses accounting for 71% of the total. Ethereum, with 34 incidents, was the most targeted chain, followed by BNB Chain with 18 incidents.
The total losses in the Web3 ecosystem for the second quarter reached approximately $572.7 million, a staggering 112% increase from the $265.5 million stolen in the same quarter of the previous year. Hackers were responsible for the majority of these losses, stealing $564.2 million in 53 incidents, while fraudsters accounted for $8.45 million in 19 incidents.
Two major crypto exchanges, DMM Bitcoin in Japan and BtcTurk in Turkey, suffered the most significant losses, with $305 million and $55 million stolen, respectively.
Despite the grim statistics, the report also noted that $28.7 million was recovered in four instances, equating to 5% of the total losses for the quarter.
Year-to-date, the crypto ecosystem has seen losses totaling nearly $921 million across 135 incidents, with the month of May alone contributing over $358 million to this figure.
The report concluded by noting the increase in hack-related losses by 155% and a decrease in fraud-related losses by 81% when comparing the second quarters of 2023 and 2024. It also mentioned that Immunefi currently offers more than $163 million in bounty rewards and has paid out over $100 million in bounties, saving over $25 billion in user funds.
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