The cryptocurrency market has experienced a surge of rug pulls this week, exit scams, and hacks, causing increased concern within the crypto community. Surprisingly, these losses have surpassed the damages resulting from decentralized finance (DeFi) hacks this week.
According to a recent report from web3 bug bounty platform Immunefi, Web 3 platforms have experienced a loss of over $1.2 billion in 2023 from January to August. In August alone, Web 3 platforms lost almost $23.4 million. Interestingly, the surge in losses during August predominantly affected projects hosted on the newly launched Ethereum Layer 2 Base network.
Platypus DeFi Protocol Suffers $2M Flash Loan Attack
Platypus, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol that utilizes liquidity pools for trading digital assets experienced three flash loan attacks on October 12th, resulting in a total loss of $2.23 million. This incident marked the third time Platypus had been exploited within 2023, following losses of $8.5 million in February and $157,000 in July.
Read Also: Platypus Finance Loses $2 Mln In A Latest Security Breach
The attack in February particularly impacted its stablecoin USP, causing it to depeg from $1 to $0.48. In response to these vulnerabilities, Platypus promptly suspended its pools and established a compensation portal for the victims affected by the February attack.
Whistleblower Reveals Alameda Research’s $190M Scam Loss
Alameda Research, a hedge fund associated with FTX, reportedly suffered losses of over $190 million due to avoidable scams. These revelations come from Aditya Bharadwaj, a former engineer who turned whistleblower. Baradwaj highlighted how the fund’s swift decision-making led to frequent security breaches.
One notable incident involved a trader losing over $100 million after innocently clicking on a malicious link in a Google Search result. Another case involved Alameda’s questionable involvement in a blockchain project, resulting in losses exceeding $40 million.
Read Also: SBF’s Alameda Research: $110 Million in Bitcoin Found by Liquidators
Baradwaj exposed inadequate industry-standard practices, including insufficient code testing and insecure key storage, which contributed to multiple security breaches. In one instance alone, these breaches resulted in losses surpassing $50 million.
Galxe Hack Victims to Receive 110% Compensation
Galxe, a self-sovereign identity protocol, has recently announced its plan to compensate users affected by a phishing attack on Oct. 6. The company will provide 110% reimbursement in Tether to those who lost funds during the incident. Approximately 1,120 users were impacted, resulting in losses exceeding $396,000.
Galxe blamed the breach on an impersonator gaining unauthorized access through their domain registrar Dynadot. In response, Galxe has partnered with security firms to aid in fund recovery and implemented enhanced security measures. Following the hack, there was a slight decrease in the value of the GAL token; however, it rebounded over the weekend.
Upbit Hit by 159,000 Hacking Attempts in 1H 2023
In the first half of 2023, Upbit, a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange, faced an astounding number of hacking attempts, exceeding 159,000, marking a significant rise from previous years. Following a $50 million exploit in 2019, the exchange took decisive action by bolstering its security measures and proudly declared freedom from any further cyber breaches.
Read Also: UpBit Hit By $3.4 Billion Fake Aptos (APT) Token Scam
However, it temporarily suspended Aptos token services due to a fraudulent token scam. In response to these incidents, a lawmaker vehemently urged the government to enhance testing and supervision of virtual asset exchanges. It is worth noting that other crypto exchanges also experienced hacks in September, resulting in substantial financial losses.
Huobi Global Hacks: $8 Million Heist Resolved
On September 25, 2023, HTX, a crypto exchange of Huobi Global, fell victim to a hacker who managed to steal 5,000 ETH (equivalent to $8 million). In response, HTX took proactive measures and reached out to the hacker.
They proposed a solution – offering a 5% bounty amounting to $400,000 – with no threats of legal action if the hacker returned 95% of the funds by October 2. Surprisingly enough, the hacker agreed and cooperated with HTX.
Read Also: Just In: HTX Global Hacker Makes Full Refund of Stolen Funds
The exchange expressed gratitude towards the industry for its assistance during this challenging time. It’s worth noting that this incident was among several hacking incidents in Q3 of 2023. Both crypto and Web3 projects had been experiencing heightened security challenges.
Friend.tech Users Hit by $385K SIM-Swap Heist
A scammer managed to steal approximately $385,000 worth of Ether from eight users on Friend.tech. The method employed was SIM-swapping their phone numbers and gaining access to their crypto wallets. Friend.tech is an online platform that facilitates the purchase of “keys” for chatting with others.
Read Also: Friend Tech Suffers Data Leak Exposing 101K User Wallets
The target victims were users who had publicly mentioned their keys on Twitter. Manifold Trading issued a warning, expressing concern that around $20 million in funds belonging to Friend.tech could potentially be at risk and strongly recommended implementing two-factor authentication (2FA).
The presented content may include the personal opinion of the author and is subject to market condition. Do your market research before investing in cryptocurrencies. The author or the publication does not hold any responsibility for your personal financial loss.
Source: https://coingape.com/rug-pull-alert-crypto-hacks-that-wrecked-the-web3/
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