The cryptocurrency industry lost a total of $42.6 million to various hacking schemes in the month of May.
Flash loan attacks, exit schemes, and exploits dominate the hacking techniques that cost crypto users money during the month. Despite the successful hacks, blockchain security experts recovered approximately $96.2 million, restoring some faith and relief for crypto users.
Blockchain Security Firm Certik released the report on their X feed detailing the crypto projects with the most losses and the amount of money lost through a particular hacking technique.
CryptoPotato reported that Gala Games and Sonne Finance suffered the most, losing $21.6M and $20M, respectively.
Flash Loan Attacks
Flash loan attacks were responsible for the largest losses in the crypto sector in May. Flash loan attacks cost the cryptocurrency sector a whopping $20.7 million.
Sonne Finance lost approximately $20 million to flash loan attacks followed by TLN Protocol, which lost $746,000. GPU and Saturn Token also recorded losses totaling $32,394 and $8,343, respectively.
Flash loan attacks have hit the crypto space more in odd-numbered months throughout this year with January, March, and May recording losses of $15.3 million, $21.9 million, and $20.7 million, respectively. The trend reverses in other months of the year like February and April where losses were less than $150,000 each.
Exploits
The second most successful hacking technique in the crypto space in May was exploits which was responsible for over $19.7 million in losses.
Gala Games suffered the most substantial loss at $21.6 million, followed by AlexLab at $4.3 million, Pump Fun at $1.9 million, GNUS.ai at $1.28 million, and Orion at $947,000.
Exit Scams
Exit scams although becoming increasingly less common still contributed about $1.8 million to total losses in May. Among these, Trees On Sol lost $1.11 million, Pii Park $490,000, Novamind $123,019, and Arbalest $91,520.
The most severe case of losses due to Exit scams occurred in February where a total of $58.3 million was lost with less than 10% of this total happening in other months of the year.
In 2024 in general, over $473 million worth of cryptocurrency has been lost to crypto hacks and rug pulls in over 108 incidents according to a report by Security service provider Immunefi.
Decentralized finance (Defi) remains the primary target for hackers in the crypto space and over $2 billion was lost to hacks and exploits last year.
Centralized projects in the crypto space are yet to experience any attack this year.
Ethereum and BNB chain were the most targeted blockchains in May 2024 with the duo representing over 62% of total losses across all blockchains targeted.
What To Know
- Flash loan attacks happen when malicious actors use the temporary uncollateralized liquidity provided by flash loans to manipulate the price of a cryptocurrency, exploit vulnerabilities in a DeFi smart contract, or steal funds from a protocol.
- An exit scam in crypto is an event in which dishonest developers abscond with investors’ funds, abandoning the project entirely. It often occurs before, during, or after an initial coin offering (ICO) period.
- A Rug Pull is a type of exit scam that involves a team raising money from investors and the public by selling a token only to quietly shut down the project or suddenly disappear, stealing the raised funds and leaving investors with worthless tokens.