- 45.5% of stolen assets were recovered, compared to just 8% in 2022
- Coins on the Ethereum Mainnet accounted for most of the crypto lost
A total of $656 million was lost to crypto hacks, scams, and rug pulls during the first half of 2023, a June 30 report by Web3 security firm Beosin showed, cited by Cointelegraph. This includes the loss of $108 million in a number of phishing scams and $471.43 million and $75.87 million in more than 100 protocol attacks resp. over 100 rug pulls.
Significant decline
The crypto assets lost in hacks were far less in value compared to 2022. $1.91 billion was lost in the first half of last year and $1.69 billion was lost in the second half. The numbers for 2021 were even higher: in H2 2021, phishing scams, hacks, and rug pulls raked in crypto worth a record $2.1 billion.
Almost half of the funds were recovered
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.
The biggest hack was that of Euler Finance in March. A dashboard compiled by Beosin and Footprint Analytics shows this was the only hack where more than $100 million was lost. Euler Finance lost almost $200 million in a flash loan attack. It announced redemptions when the cybercriminals had given most of the stolen funds back, about a month later.
Most of the lost crypto was on Ethereum
Coins and tokens minted on the Ethereum Mainnet accounted for the vast majority of crypto lost in the first half of the year – just under 76%. They were followed by coins and tokens on Binance Smart Chain, but the losses were less than 3%.
Smart contracts are the weakest link
56% of the crypto was lost due to smart contract issues. More than a fifth of the losses remain unexplained.
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