Stolen crypto via hacking increased 110% in first half of 2024 over 2023

The first half of 2024 saw hackers targeting cryptocurrency abscond with $1.38 billion, TRM Labs recently found.  

That total marked a 110% increase from how much they swiped during 2023’s first half, according to the blockchain intelligence company. In the first six months of last year, it was $657 million.

TRM Labs said in its analysis that “higher average token prices” probably played a part in the observed spike in stolen cryptocurrency. 

Popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, for example, have seen their prices climb about 87% and 65%, respectively. 

The blockchain intelligence company noted it hadn’t seen any “fundamental changes in the security of the cryptocurrency ecosystem” or “significant differences” in the frequency or method of attacks compared to 2023’s first six months, according to its report.

When it came to swiping cryptocurrency during the first six months of 2024, hackers most often resorted to private key and seed phrase compromises to do so, per TRM Labs. The blockchain intelligence company also identified smart contract exploits, flash loan attacks and other tactics as being frequently deployed.

More than three-quarters of the $1.38 billion taken by crypto hackers between Jan. 1 and June 24 was linked to five incidents, including the $300 million one that DMM Bitcoin suffered a couple months ago, TRM found.

“While not surprising, the recent TRM Labs report is a stark reminder that the crypto industry needs to do much more to plug the holes that exist within the broader blockchain ecosystem,” Rubicon Digital Assets CEO Greg Johnson told FOX Business. “Although the rebound in cryptocurrency pricing does play a major role in the YOY increase in cyber exploits, the risk of cyber-criminal activity…both individual and state sponsored…remains the greatest threat to all crypto participants.”

According to the TRM Labs analysis, 2022 holds a record for the January-through-June timeframe at almost $2 billion stolen cryptocurrency.

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Cryptocurrency users continue to face the threat of theft “partly because this is a relatively immature technology,” according to Tom Robinson of Elliptic. 

“Hackers have found flaws in the smart contracts used in a number of services, which have then been exploited,” he explained. “However, cryptocurrencies can be traced – investigators can ‘follow the money’ in some circumstances and retrieve stolen assets.”

Meanwhile, Cybercrimes Research Lead Eric Jardine of Chainalsys, a blockchain analysis company, told FOX Business that the company he works for was “continuing to see hacking and money laundering tactics typical of North-Korean linked attacks” in the crypto sector.

“One evolution we are observing this year is in victim typology: we are seeing a return to hacks of centralized exchanges, whereas over the past few years attackers were targeting DeFi services,” he said in a statement. “We are also seeing the early indication that novel uses of crypto, such as crypto gaming services, the tokenization of real world assets, and distributed AI platforms, are not immune from hackers and could become common targets for malicious activity if these use cases continue to grow.”

In a separate January report, Chainalysis found about $1.7 billion of cryptocurrency was pilfered by hackers over the course of last year.