$656M lost from crypto hacks, scams and rug pulls in H1 2023: Report

According to a June 30 report by Web3 security firm Beosin, the total value of cryptocurrencies lost in scams, hacks and rug pulls amounted to $656 million during the first half of 2023. This includes the loss of $471.43 million in 108 protocol attacks, $108 million in various phishing scams and $75.87 million over 110 rug pulls. For hacks, the amount represented a significant decrease over H1 2022 and H2 2022, where $1.91 billion and $1.69 billion were lost, respectively. In addition, Beosin analysts wrote:

“Approximately $215 million of stolen assets were recovered, accounting for 45.5% of all stolen assets. In contrast, in 2022, only 8% were recovered. $113 million of stolen assets were transferred to mixers: $45.38M into Tornado Cash and $68.14M into other mixers.”

In a dashboard compiled by Beosin and Footprint Analytics, only one project was hacked for more than $100 million, that being Euler Finance’s $195 million flash loan hack on March 13. The firm opened redemptions on April 12 after hackers returned most of the stolen assets. 

The vast majority of crypto lost in H1 2023 were coins and tokens minted on the Ethereum blockchain, at 75.6%. Meanwhile, the second largest stolen asset class, Binance Smart Chain tokens, came at just 2.6%.

Furthermore, most of the stolen crypto was lost due to smart contract vulnerabilities (56%), while 21.4% had no clear identifiable reasons for the loss. Nevertheless, the numbers represent a significant decrease over H2 2021, when a record $2.1 billion in crypto was lost due to hacks, phishing scams and rug pulls.

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