Chainalysis: October Worst Month In What Is Possibly The Worst Year For Crypto
- Around 11 hacks have been implemented so far in October and investors saw attackers draining around $718 million from DeFi platforms and cross chain bridges.
- Chainalysis confirms that so far in 2022, there have been 125 hacks and the hackers have made away with $3 billion worth of investors’ funds.
- In October, we have seen Zcash, BSC Token Hub, and Mango Markets getting exploit and at this pace, 2022 might become the worst year for crypto.
The month of October has been quite active in the crypto space when it comes to the number of hacks implemented in the world of DeFi. According to a report from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, October is the month with the most number of exploits and hacks in 2022, which is possibly the worst year in the crypto space.
In 2022, the majority of cryptocurrencies corrected the gains that they had made in the 2021 boom of the crypto space, and the valuations of firms, along with the prices of NFTs, trading volumes, have all crashed severely. This was aggravated by the bankruptcy of crypto lending platforms Celsius Network, Vauld, and Voyager Digital, along with former hedge fund Three Arrows Capital. The collapse of the Terra ecosystem was another sad event that wiped off close to $40 billion from the crypto space.
However, this was not enough. As per the new data from Chainalysis, “October is now the biggest month in the biggest year ever for hacking activity, with more than half the month still to go. So far this month, $718 million has been stolen from #DeFi protocols across 11 different hacks.”
In the first 2 weeks of October itself, there have been four attacks on crypto protocols and decentralized exchanges.
At this rate, 2022 will likely surpass 2021 as the biggest year for hacking on record. So far, hackers have grossed over $3 billion dollars across 125 hacks,”
confirme dChainalysis in another Twitter post.
The blockchain analystics firm also pointed out that there has been a change in trend in these hacks and exploits that investors are witnessing in the crypto space. Earlier in 2019, the most targeted platforms for hackers were centralized exchange which includes the popular Mt. Gox exchange hack or even the Bitfinex exchange exploit. However, times have changed and now, the hacks have found new ways to implement their attacks.
According to Chainalaysis, hackers are increasingly targeting decentralized finance protocols and that too, there is a strong percentage of cross-chain bridges getting hacked or exploited. This is because cross-chain bridges are responsible for connecting two blockchains which suggests that vulnerabilities can be expected.
“Cross-chain bridges remain a major target for hackers, with 3 bridges breached this month and nearly $600 million stolen, accounting for 82% of losses this month and 64% of losses all year,”
said the blockchain analystics firm.
Interestingly in October, we have seen hackers exploit the BSC Token Hub, the cross-chain bridge that joins the BNB Beacon Chain (BEP2) and BNB Chain (BEP20 or BSC). This exploit saw hackers making away with more than $100 million and it seems that Binance team has been on the trails of the hackers as well. In order to isolate the hack, the chain is undergoing a hard fork, said the developers.
Another improtant hack witnessed was the hack of Mango Markets, a decentralized exchange on Solana along with Zcash, a privacy-focused blockchain.
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
