Immunefi, a prominent bug bounty and security services platform for the Web3 ecosystem, plays a crucial role in safeguarding the crypto community by regularly assessing the volume of funds lost due to hacks and scams. The platform is known for its large community of whitehat hackers who meticulously examine blockchain and smart contract code, identify vulnerabilities, and responsibly disclose them. These ethical hackers are rewarded through Immunefi based on the severity of the issues they uncover, fostering a strong incentive for experts to thoroughly review project code and contribute to making the crypto space more secure.
In the August 2024 edition of its “Crypto Losses” report, Immunefi revealed alarming statistics on the losses the crypto community has faced so far this year. According to the report, the total funds lost to hacks and rug pulls in 2024 up to this point amounted to $1,210,741,330 across 154 specific incidents. This figure marks a 15.5% increase compared to the same period in 2023, where the losses totaled $1,048,044,942. However, August 2024 showed a significant decline in losses, with $15,082,000 reported lost due to hacks and fraud across five incidents. This amount represents the lowest monthly loss for the year, showing a 38% decrease from August 2023, where losses were recorded at $24,581,220, and a dramatic 94.5% decrease compared to the previous month.
The report highlighted that the majority of the August losses were attributed to two specific projects: the Ronin Network and Nexera. The Ronin Network, a blockchain designed to optimize transactions for gaming applications like Axie Infinity, suffered a loss of $12 million. Nexera, a DeFi protocol, incurred a loss of $1.5 million. These two incidents accounted for the bulk of the total losses in August.
In a notable trend, DeFi (Decentralized Finance) continued to surpass CeFi (Centralized Finance) in terms of funds lost, with all five incidents reported in August occurring within the DeFi space. This trend reflects the increasing focus of hackers on DeFi projects, which represented 100% of the total funds lost for the month. No incidents were reported within CeFi during this period.
Hacks remained the predominant cause of losses, with no fraud events recorded in August 2024. The report underscored that all the losses were due to hacking incidents, totaling $15,082,000 across the five cases.
The August report also identified the most targeted blockchain networks. Ethereum and BNB Chain were the primary targets, with Ethereum suffering three attacks that accounted for 60% of the total losses across targeted chains. BNB Chain experienced two incidents, representing the remaining 40% of the losses.
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