Over the past 13 years, the cryptocurrency industry has witnessed 785 reported hacks and exploits, leading to nearly $19 billion in stolen digital assets since the first known crypto hack on June 19, 2011, according to a Crystal Intelligence report shared with Cointelegraph.
The largest single crypto theft remains the 2019 Plus Token fraud, where attackers netted $2.9 billion worth of Bitcoin and Ether.
More recently, in February 2024, the $290 million security breach on PlayDapp was the largest single crypto heist over the past two years.
Additionally, the JPEX investment scam in Hong Kong resulted in $194.3 million of stolen crypto, marking it as the largest single crypto fraud scheme during the same period.
Crypto hacks and exploits continue to hinder mainstream trust and adoption.
In 2024, crypto hacks are on track to surpass those in 2023, with the first quarter of 2024 seeing $542.7 million worth of stolen funds—a 42% increase compared to the same period in 2023.
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While 2023 had the most reported crypto-related hacks, 2022 saw the biggest loss in value.
According to Crystal Intelligence, 286 exploits in 2022 led to over $2.3 billion in stolen assets.
However, the total value of stolen digital assets in 2022 was $4.2 billion, nearly double that of 2023.
The number of incidents in 2022 was 199, 30% less than the 286 hacks reported in 2023.
“Even with improved and enhanced monitoring and reporting mechanisms, illegal activity on the blockchain has continued to grow in 2023 and 2024,” the Crystal Intelligence report states.
In 2023, there were 68 security breaches, with attackers stealing over $1 billion worth of digital assets.
In contrast, decentralized finance (DeFi) hacks resulted in $835 million of stolen cryptocurrency in 2023, despite over 112 reported DeFi hacks, indicating that these incidents are smaller but more frequent compared to larger security breaches.
The largest DeFi hack in the past two years was the Euler Finance hack, resulting in $197 million worth of stolen Ether tokens.
The ten largest DeFi hacks in 2023 and 2024 accounted for nearly $579 million in stolen assets.
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