In a turbulent month for the cryptocurrency market, May 2023 witnessed a wave of scams and hacking incidents that resulted in cumulative losses of over $54 million, a new report from security firm De.Fi shows, according to a recent report. The amount is nearly half of April’s $101.5 million loss, suggesting better security practices among users and developers. However, no funds were recovered in May 2023 – compared to $2.2 million recovered in April.
The BNB Chain ecosystem accounted for the majority of the incidents, with losses above $37 million across ten cases. Ethereum-based projects saw the least exploits at just over $2 million. Among the top ten cases, Fintoch suffered the highest loss of $31.7 million due to a smart contract exploit, while Jimbo Protocol on Arbitrum experienced a loss of $7.5 million due to a rugpull and Deus Finance on BNB lost $6.2 million in a smart contract exploit. Other notable cases included Tornado Cash, Mother, WSB Coin, Linda Yaccarino, Block Forest, SNOOKER, and land, with losses ranging from $145,000 to $733,000.
Rug pulls were the most prevalent, accounting for twelve cases and losses totaling $37 million. There were nine cases of exploits resulting in losses of $8.8 million, while flash loan attacks, although less frequent with five cases, still led to significant losses totaling $8.9 million. Exit scams were responsible for two cases, resulting in a loss of $177,000.
Governance tokens were the most commonly targeted category, with 19 cases reported and losses totaling $3.3 million. Decentralized exchanges (DEX) were targeted in three cases, resulting in losses of $4 million. Stablecoins recorded the highest amount lost, reaching $6.2 million in a single case. Other categories, such as yield aggregators, gaming and metaverse applications, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and centralized crypto platforms reported no losses during this period. Borrowing and lending protocols remained unaffected as well.
The report from De.Fi shows that May 2023 saw a wave of scams and hacking incidents resulting in cumulative losses of over $54 million. Rug pulls remained the most prevalent, accounting for twelve cases and losses totaling $37 million, the report states. Stablecoins recorded the highest amount lost, reaching $6.2 million in a single case. Governance tokens were the most commonly targeted category, with 19 cases reported and losses totaling $3.3 million.