Crypto heists have been on the rise, with a 42% increase in volume in 2023 compared to the previous year, according to a recent analysis by Comparitech. In 2023, there were a total of 283 incidents of crypto theft, up from 199 incidents in 2022. Despite the increase in the number of incidents, the total monetary value stolen actually decreased by 51% from $3.55 billion in 2022 to $1.75 billion in 2023.
However, the start of 2024 has already seen $16.93 million worth of crypto stolen as of January 15, which is double the amount stolen in January 2023, which stood at $8.37 million. This indicates a worrying trend of continued crypto theft in the new year.
On the other hand, rug pulls and scams saw a decrease in 2023, with 25% fewer incidents compared to 2022, dropping from 365 to 273. The value of cryptocurrency lost in these scams also halved from $1.2 billion in 2022 to $656 million in 2023. Rug pulls involve founders of new crypto tokens or NFTs pulling out before the project is completed, while scams include Ponzi schemes, honeypots, and impersonations of other coins.
The decline in the total monetary value stolen in 2023 could be attributed to the decrease in the value of decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms throughout the year. Attacks on DeFi platforms accounted for 51% of crypto heists in 2023, followed by hacks on individual cryptocurrencies at 30%.
Some of the largest crypto heists and scams in 2023 include the $200 million theft from Mixin Network due to a compromise of its cloud service provider database, the $197 million stolen from Euler Finance after exploiting a vulnerability in its DeFi lending protocol, and the $192 million theft from JPEX, an unlicensed platform in Hong Kong.
Overall, a staggering $27 billion has been lost to crypto heists, rug pulls, and scams to date. Rebecca Moody, Head of Data Research at Comparitech, highlighted the vulnerability of crypto platforms, particularly in cases of private key compromises.
In a separate study by Comparitech, it was revealed that ransomware attacks on US government organizations resulted in over $860 million in downtime from January 2018 to December 2023, potentially impacting more than 250 million individuals. This underscores the pervasive threat of cybercrime in the digital age.