Hacktober Finished With $657 Million Losses From Crypto Exploits

Last month was quite spooky for the crypto industry as it saw the highest number of DeFi hacks this year. 

While October was expected to be “Uptober,” it quickly turned to “Hacktober” as cyber criminals ransacked top crypto projects for hundreds of millions of dollars. 

Hackers Steal $760M From DeFi Protocols

A recent tweet by the blockchain security company PeckShield pointed out that October was the biggest month for hacking activities this year. The DeFi market suffered from 44 exploits that impacted 53 protocols in the tenth month, with the hackers netting $760.2 million.

According to PeckShield, the biggest amount of funds was stolen from the BNB Chain exploit that saw hackers wipe a whopping $586 million from the blockchain network. It was followed by the Solana-based crypto lender, Mango Markets, which was exploited for $100 million. 

Hackers stole $15.8 million from the crypto vesting platform, Team Finance, by taking advantage of a bug in the Version 2 to Version 3 migration on the protocol.

$100M of Stolen Funds Recovered

PeckShield noted that hackers have already returned about $115 million out of the stolen funds to exploited platforms in what could be termed a silver lining amid the numerous losses. 

#PeckShieldAlert ~44 exploits (53 protocols affected) grabbed ~$760.2M in Oct. 2022, and ~$100M already returned the exploited protocols (Total loss: $657.2M)
As of October 2022, the stolen funds (~$3B) in 2022 “doubled” last year’s loss pic.twitter.com/mKZAjVk7UU

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) October 31, 2022

One instance of this is the Mango Markets hacker, identified as Avraham Eisenburg. He claimed that his actions in the exploit were legal. 

After negotiations and community votes, Mango struck an agreement with Eisenburg, who returned $67 million to the project and walked away with around $50 million.

$3B Stolen From DeFi in 2022 Doubles 2021 Loss

Last month’s series of hacks made 2022 a profitable year for hackers compared to last year. According to the PeckShield report, hackers have already grossed a whopping $3 billion in stolen funds, double the $1.5 billion worth of crypto assets lost in 2021. 

Since the start of the year, the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi protocols has also been disappointing. The TVL had fallen dramatically from over $150 billion at the beginning of the year to approximately $56 billion.