According to CryptoPotato, blockchain security firm CertiK reported that the cryptocurrency industry experienced significant damage from malicious actors in August, with over $45 million in digital assets stolen. The PEPE exploit was the primary cause, resulting in a loss of $13.2 million. Data reveals that exit scams accounted for approximately $26 million, while flash loan attacks and exploits took a combined total of nearly $20 million.

Notable contributors to this statistic include the Zunami Protocol attack, which led to $2.2 million in losses, and the Exactly Protocol exploit, which siphoned off $7.3 million. However, the most significant incident, the PEPE withdrawal, accounted for $13.2 million in losses. The incident involved a mysterious withdrawal of $16 million from the Pepecoin (PEPE) project’s multi-sig wallet. Reportedly, three former members of the project planned the theft and subsequently handed over control to the sole remaining one.

As a result, PEPE’s price plunged by approximately 15% on Aug. 24, sparked by the community’s fear of a potential rug pull after spotting the sum withdrawn from the Pepe multi-sig wallet and transferred to various exchanges. PEPE is currently trading at $0.000000816110, down by 8% over the past week, with a 24-hour trading volume of $63,593,981, according to data from CoinGecko.