Hackers Stole $3.8 Billion From Crypto Investors In 2022: Report

Cryptocurrency hackers stole $3.8 billion final yr, making it the worst yr on document for crypto traders, up from $3.3 billion in 2021.

According to Blockchain analytics platform Chainalysis, October was the largest single month ever for cryptocurrency hacking, as $775.7 million was stolen in 32 separate assaults.

DeFi (Decentralised Finance) protocols as victims accounted for 82.1 per cent of all cryptocurrency stolen by hackers — a complete of $3.1 billion — up from 73.3 per cent in 2021.

Of that $3.1 billion, 64 per cent got here from cross-chain bridge protocols particularly.

Cross-chain bridges are protocols that permit customers port their cryptocurrency from one blockchain to a different, normally by locking the consumer’s belongings into a wise contract on the unique chain, after which minting equal belongings on the second chain.

“If a bridge will get sufficiently big, any error in its underlying good contract code or different potential weak spot is nearly certain to ultimately be discovered and exploited by dangerous actors,” mentioned the report.

North Korea-linked hackers such as those in cybercriminal syndicate Lazarus Group have been by far the most prolific cryptocurrency hackers over the last few years.

In 2022, they shattered their own records for theft, stealing an estimated $1.7 billion worth of cryptocurrency across several hacks, the report said.

Most experts agree the North Korean government is using these stolen cryptos to fund its nuclear weapons programmes.

About $1.1 billion of that total was stolen in hacks of DeFi protocols, making North Korea one of the driving forces behind the DeFi hacking trend that intensified in 2022.

“Besides DeFi protocols, North Korea-linked hackers also tend to send large sums to mixers, which have typically been the cornerstone of their money laundering process,” the report famous.

For a lot of 2021 and 2022, North Korea-linked hackers virtually completely used Tornado Cash to launder cryptocurrency stolen in hacks.

Sinbad is a comparatively new custodial Bitcoin mixer that started promoting its companies on the BitcoinSpeak discussion board in October 2022.

During December 2022 and January 2023, North Korea-linked hackers despatched a complete of 1,429.6 Bitcoin value roughly $24.2 million to the mixer, the report mentioned.

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(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is revealed from a syndicated news company feed)