Research conducted by blockchain security firm SlowMist shows that the crypto industry has lost just over $30 billion to hackers since 2012, with more than 30% ($10.95 billion) stolen from centralized exchanges.
The security firm reported that the exchanges suffered 118 hacking attacks between 2012 and 2023, with the two worst occurring in 2021 and totaling nearly $5 billion in losses.
The data also shows that most large-scale hacks occur during bull market cycles.
In contrast, hackers stole less than $1 billion directly from blockchain networks and cryptocurrency wallets during the period. Hot wallets alone suffered $408.9 million in losses, while blockchain networks lost a relatively small amount of $207.2 million to malicious actors.
The non-fungible token (NFT) industry has seen losses of up to $200 million, mostly due to phishing links and social engineering scams.
Finally, the bridge protocol hack resulted in a total of just over $2 billion in stolen funds during this period.
Ecosystem loss
Data shows that Ethereum and BNB Chain (formerly Binance Smart Chain) are the hardest hit by hacker attacks, both in terms of the number of hacker attacks and the amount of losses.
Hackers stole $3.1 billion from the Ethereum ecosystem through 217 separate hacks. On the other hand, BNB Chain lost $1.45 billion in 162 different hacks.
Although the EOS ecosystem was the third most common target, its losses were relatively small, totaling $25.9 million. In contrast, despite suffering fewer attacks (Solana 13 times, Polygon 16 times), Solana and Polygon suffered huge losses of $202.7 million and $177.9 million respectively.
The Avalanche network has been hacked eight times, with cumulative losses reaching $127.7 million.
The study also includes data from chains such as Tron, Fantom, Polkadot, and HECO. In total, these chains have suffered less than 50 hacks and losses of less than $200 million.
Finally, the remaining $10.9 billion of the total stolen funds falls into the “other” category, according to SlowMist. This category includes all other types of blockchain hacks, scams, pulls, and various forms of digital theft not explicitly mentioned.
