Crime-related crypto losses drop from previous month but spike year-over-year

Losses from crypto hacks dropped by 57% compared to September but increased by 114% compared to October 2023.

Seven hacks led to more than $55 million in crypto losses, the second-lowest monthly loss this year, according to data from the bug bounty platform Immunefi.

So far, in 2024, there have been 179 hacks and rug pulls, resulting in over $1.4 billion in losses. The report noted that October saw only hacks, with no recorded fraud events.

However, the bulk of last month’s losses came from a $50 million hack of the DeFi (decentralized finance) protocol Radiant Capital. Another DeFi protocol, Tapioca DAO, lost $4.4 million. Notably, there were no reported hacks of centralized platforms in October.

In contrast, blockchain security firm CertiK reported that around $130 million was lost last month due to exit scams, flash loan attacks, and other exploits, with approximately $245,000 recovered and returned to victims.

At the end of October and the start of November, new incidents were already surfacing. Hackers injected malicious code into files of Lottie Player, a JavaScript animation library, affecting multiple decentralized applications (dApps). Crypto security specialist Scam Sniffer reported that one victim lost 10 BTC ($686,541) after signing a phishing transaction potentially related to this malicious code.

Separately, on November 3rd, online crypto casino MetaWin reportedly lost around $4 million due to an exploit. "So far, stolen funds have been transferred to Kucoin and a HitBTC nested service," blockchain investigator ZachXBT said.

He also shared a screenshot, apparently from the MetaWin CEO, who stated that the exploiter was able to withdraw "a significant amount from our hot wallet by taking advantage of our frictionless withdrawal system." The CEO added that they are in the process of "topping up wallet balances now" and that they are learning from this "challenge."