Crypto hackers steal over $700 million from Ethereum blockchain in 2022 Q1

• Crypto hacks continues at alarming rate this year

• The Ethereum Blockchain has recorded the most attacks this year.

• Industry players look to lawmakers to curb crypto hacks.

The first quarter of 2022 has been a roller coaster of both positive and negative events in the crypto market. Compared with Q1’s of other years, crypto hack events are at an all-time high this year with 77 cases reported. 

Over $1.2 billion worth of crypto was stolen by hackers in Q1 2022

The figure is according to data provided by SlowMist Hacked which chronicles information about disclosed crypto breaches. Since the first of January, there has been over $1,282,614,945.38 worth of crypto lost to criminal actors across the crypto industry. Last year, the industry also recoded a $9.8 billion loss in crypto hackers.

The Ethereum blockchain ecosystem was the hardest hit during the period. Protocols in the second-largest blockchain network lost over $635,885,223 million to 18 hack events. The Axie Infinity Ronin network hack which was discovered this week was the largest of them, losing around $635 million. The hack amounted to about 99% of the total losses in the Ethereum ecosystem, and over 50% of the entire blockchain industry total for Q1 2022. 

The Solana network clocked in at second on the leaderboard with over $388 million lost in 4 hack events. The biggest loss was suffered by Wormhole, a cross-bridge between Solana and Ethereum. The exploit saw hackers make away with around 120,000 Wormhole-wrapped Ether on the Solana blockchain worth around $334 million at the time. 

The BNB Smart Chain (BSC) also had its share of events, registering 14 hacks in which around $99.7 million was stolen. Meanwhile, NFT projects had the most events recorded. There were 21 total reported NFT compromise cases recorded by SlowMist, amounting to over $47 million worth of losses. 

Commenting on the spate of criminality in the nascent industry, observers have been calling for protocols to adopt best development practices. Similarly, users have also been implored to exercise more caution with their funds. 

William S, a cybersecurity researcher and publisher at Atlas VPN, said:

“Blockchain project security should be one of the primary concerns for a person looking to invest in cryptocurrency. Most blockchain-related hack events happen because cybercriminals exploit flaws in the project code.”

Industry experts’ response to rise in crypto hackers

The endemic increase in criminal events has followed the growing popularity and adoption of crypto and blockchain technology. The crypto market has reached a capitalization of $2.27 trillion on the back of a bull rally across the industry. 

However, the industry continues to take steps to both prevent hacks and hunt down crypto hackers. Protocols encourage the community to participate in bounty hunts to identify possible flaws in their codebase to earn rewards. This has helped avoid some hacks already as has been exemplified by OpenSea and more recently MinSwap, a Cardano-based DEX. 

Similarly, the space continues to work with law enforcement and also has dedicated industry security crypto security watchdogs like Chainalysis, Messari.