Crypto Losses from Hacks Surpassed $313 Million in August

Last month, the crypto space experienced $313 million in losses due to over ten different hacks.

Of the total stolen funds, 93.5% were lost in two large phishing attacks that occurred during that time.

August Cases

According to a post by blockchain security firm PeckShield, the two incidents combined for a loss of about $293.4 million.

In the first occurrence, an unknown whale lost more than 4,000 bitcoin (BTC), worth an estimated $238 million at the time, after falling victim to a phishing scheme. The funds were reportedly moved around several platforms, including THORChain and Railgun, making a recovery near impossible.

In the second attack, another large crypto holder saw about $55.4 million worth of Dai (DAI) transferred from their wallet without their authorization, with the perpetrator allegedly swapping the funds for their Ethereum (ETH) equivalent.

In addition, the Ronin Network also fell victim to a significant exploit. Although $12 million was recovered from the attacker, unauthorized crypto transactions amounting to $5.1 million were still lost.

Another notable episode involved decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Nexera, which suffered a theft of $1.83 million due to a smart contract manipulation.

An additional report by bug bounty platform Immunefi shows that as of last month, the crypto industry has lost $1.21 billion in digital assets due to hacks and rug pulls year-to-date (YTD). Interestingly, that particular analysis characterized crypto losses in August due to such happenings as some of the lowest in 2024.

It said that the industry lost about $15 million from five different incidents, an amount that was more than 94% lower than what was lost in July.

WazirX Still in the News

Of course, the main cause of the high amount lost in July was the hacking of WazirX. The Indian crypto exchange lost $234.9 million from one of its multisig wallets. In response to the massive breach, the company is now implementing a phased plan to restore its financial operations.

The beleaguered exchange recently provided an update, where it announced that it had filed a moratorium with the Singapore High Court under the city state’s Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act of 2018.

A moratorium is a legal protection under Singapore law, where WazirX is registered, that shields an applicant from actions by creditors, like winding-up proceedings and enforcement of security. During the moratorium, these legal actions are put on hold until it ends.

WazirX further explained in an accompanying blog post that it anticipates a planned restructuring where the impact of the exploit will be allocated pro-rata across users who are classified as unsecured creditors.