Crypto News – Over the years, protocol flaws and hackers have posed a constant threat to the cryptocurrency sector. Into 2023, this pattern persisted. But, the number of hacks decreased by more than 50% annually.
The 5 Biggest Crypto Hacks in 2023
TRM Labs estimates that the amount of cryptocurrency that hackers have stolen this year is $1.7 billion, which is less than half of the $4 billion that was recorded in 2022. Large quantities of money were still stolen from certain projects even when the total losses decreased.
1 – Mixin Network
The biggest cryptocurrency exploit of the year targeted Mixin Network, a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency project. After hackers stole an astounding $200 million from customers’ hot wallets, the company was forced to immediately shut down on September 23.
Hackers reportedly targeted Mixin’s cloud service provider‘s database. Analysts speculate that the affected database may have contained the private keys to customers’ accounts, despite the company offering no additional explanation.
2 – Euler Finance
The March 2023 exploit on the loan protocol by Euler was one of the few incidents that vividly illustrated DeFi’s weakness. This was the strange sleight of hand that caused $197 million worth of cryptocurrency to vanish. In order to inflate the eDAI/dDAI rate, the attacker called the “donateToReserves” function repeatedly using DAI.
They used a flash loan, which is a kind of loan that is paid back in the same Ethereum transaction, to throw off the liquidity pools’ equilibrium that contains the two tokens. In order to divert money from the protocol, this led to liquidations of borrower positions denominated in dDAI.
3 – Multichain
Cross-chain bridge Multichain allegedly saw $125 million in cryptocurrency exploited in July, with Fantom receiving most of the funds. This occurred across several blockchains that it supported. This happened immediately following the bridge’s suspension, for which the team cited several problems stemming from unforeseen events.
Since no definitive post-mortem reports have been released thus far, it is still unknown what exactly caused the hack. Due to the absence of Multichain CEO Zhaojun just prior to the breach, there have been concerns expressed that the team itself may have been involved in the attack.
4 – Poloniex
Suspected hackers from the North Korean Lazarus Group stole an astounding $120 million from Poloniex’s hot wallets in November 2023. They most likely did this by getting their hands on private keys. Trading and withdrawals stopped immediately, as was to be expected. As per the exchange, impacted users would receive reimbursement.
5 – Atomic Wallet
Users’ wallet accounts on the cryptocurrency wallet app Atomic were cleared out in June 2023. Approximately 5,500 people had assets valued at over $100 million taken by hackers. Since Atomic has not yet offered an explanation, the incident’s principal cause is still unknown.
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