Crypto industry lost $2.3 billion to cyber threats by 2024: Cyvers Report

As the year 2024 draws to a close, web3 security firm Cyvers has released a security, fraud and compliance report for the year, detailing the impact cybercriminals and their operations had on the crypto industry.

According to an executive summary shared with CryptoPotato, in 2024, the crypto industry lost more than $2.361 billion due to cyber threats in 165 incidents. This figure represents a 40% increase from 2023, when losses totaled $1.69 billion.

Access control incidents cause more losses

Cyvers noted that access control incidents accounted for 81% of losses in 2024 despite accounting for 41.6% of incidents. This type of attack led to the theft of $1.9 billion in 67 incidents, while code vulnerabilities allowed the loss of approximately $456.3 million in 98 incidents.

Meanwhile, address poisoning scams were fewer, with one incident resulting in a loss of $68.7 million.

While fraud trends in 2024 marked a 40% increase in year-over-year losses, they are still 37% below 2022’s record of $3.78 billion. This year, Ethereum became the network most affected by attacks, with more than $1.2 billion in losses.

Analyzing quarterly highlights, Cyvers found that smart contract vulnerabilities dominated the majority of incidents in the first quarter of 2024. The third quarter saw the highest losses, amounting to $790 million, while that the fourth quarter saw the lowest activity and losses, down 56% compared to the same quarter. in 2023. In particular, the third quarter was dominant in both 2023 and 2024.

The most notable theft incidents

The $305 million hack against Japanese cryptocurrency exchange DMM Bitcoin was one of the biggest incidents in 2024, followed by the $235 million hack against Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) project Radiant Capital lost $50 million to cybercriminals after its devices were compromised. Singaporean crypto exchange BingX was also mined for $52 million worth of digital assets.

Interestingly, 2024 saw a remarkable recovery rate, with more than $1.3 billion returned to affected projects, which was partially attributed to bug bounty programs.

Next year, the industry could see an increase in new cyber threat trends such as quantum and artificial intelligence attacks as these technologies continue to advance. There could also be more cases of centralized finance (CeFi), as CeFi entities remain vulnerable to higher risks.

In addition, pork butcher scams are also a growing threat, accounting for $3.6 billion in victim funds across more than 150,000 addresses and 800,000 transactions in 2024.

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