$62M in Crypto Stolen in December Was The Lowest Monthly Figure of 2022

Cointelegraph reported that cryptocurrency hackers and exploiters appeared to take a break during the holiday season in 2022, as the amount of cryptocurrency stolen in December totaled $62.2 million, the lowest monthly figure for the year, according to CertiK.

On December 31, a blockchain security company released a list of the month’s most significant cyber attacks. Of the attacks listed, exit scams resulted in the greatest loss, with $15.5 million in stolen cryptocurrency, followed by flash loan-based exploits which resulted in the theft of $7.6 million.

On January 1, the blockchain security company tweeted that the 23 largest attacks accounted for approximately 98.5% of the $62.2 million in stolen cryptocurrency. The largest attack of the month was the $15 million Helio Protocol incident on December 2, in which a trader took advantage of a price discrepancy in Ankr Reward Bearing Staked BNB to borrow millions worth of HAY, causing the decentralized finance protocol’s stablecoin to depreciate. The attack on Ankr itself involved the minting of 20 trillion aBNBc, leading to a sharp decrease in its price.

The second largest cyber attack of the month was the exploitation of Defrost Finance’s v1 and v2 protocols on December 23, resulting in the theft of $12.9 million. The attack involved the use of a flash loan to liquidate the protocol by adding fake collateral and a malicious price oracle.

After the attack on Defrost Finance’s protocols, the hacker returned the funds stolen from the v1 protocol to an address controlled by Defrost, but the funds stolen from the v2 hack have not yet been returned. CertiK characterized the attack as an “exit scam” because it required the use of an admin key. Defrost denied the allegations, stating that the key had been compromised.

The amount of cryptocurrency stolen in December was a significant decrease from the $595 million lost through 36 major incidents in November, a drop of 89.5%. The November figure was largely influenced by the $477 million hack of crypto exchange FTX.

Cointelegraph further reported that throughout the year 2022, the 10 largest cyber attacks resulted in the theft of around $2.1 billion in cryptocurrency, with the majority of the attacks occurring on cross-blockchain bridges and decentralized finance protocols.

About CertiK

Founded in 2018 by professors of Columbia and Yale, CertiK is a pioneer in blockchain security, utilizing best-in-class Formal Verification and AI technology to secure and monitor blockchains, smart contracts, and Web3 apps.