The post Record-Breaking Crypto Heist: Over $1 Billion Stolen in 2024 appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News
Losses from hacks and breaches have surpassed $1.19 billion for the year 2024 and more specifically $269.4 million was wiped out in the month of July alone. July’s main victims are the centralized exchanges, as $235 million WazirX has become the prime victim of hacking. DeFi frauds remain less of a problem than CeFi enumerations, with Ethereum and BNB Chain platforms being the most common victims.
A year of cyber attacks
The crypto market has experienced almost unimaginable loss in 2024, more than $1. 19 billion lost through 149 hacks and scams, a new report by Immunefi shows. This represents a 16. 3% up than the similar period in the year 2023; whereby it stood at $1. 02 billion in losses.
July’s catastrophe
July turned out to be one of the most destructive months with $269.4 shed with 14 incidents. This figure is 90 per cent up from June and marks the second biggest monthly loss in 2024 excluding May which recorded a $358 million loss. The largest attack was $235 million stolen from a centralized Indian crypto exchange wazirx 
wazirx Centralised ExchangeCrypto trading and Information , North Korean hackers believed to be involved in the attack. These losses were concentrated on this incident alone, contributing 87 per cent of all the losses recorded in July.
Centralized vs. Decentralized Finance
Without a doubt, CeFi projects are the most affected, with $636 million (53. 4%) lost in only six attacks. Secondly, The decentralised finance (DeFi) platforms stood at $554 million (46. 6%) from 143 incidents of loss.
Based on July’s performance, hacks were to blame, and they accounted for 98 per cent of the reported losses of $266.4 million and only $3 million generated by fraud, scams, and rug pulls.
Network vulnerabilities
Ethereum and BNB Chain remain the most popular among hackers’ targets, and they account for 71.4% of the total on-chain losses in 2024. Ethereum went through 7 attacks, which means 50% of all attacks targeted the chain; BNB Chain became the second on the list with three attacks totalling 21.4%. Scroll Network acknowledged one case while Base Network also had one contract breach.
The aftermath and response
The consequences of these cases have been grave especially for WazirX, as mentioned in the preceding section. One of the most discussed ideas proposed by the exchange, the so-called “socialized loss” recovery plan is an idea to spread the financial result among all users and has been met with criticism from the representatives. Nevertheless, WazirX has gone to its heights to recover the stolen funds and tie will tell if they will be successful in their efforts.
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