Crypto Security: August Saw Lowest YTD Loss – 100% DeFi Hacks, No Fraud or CeFi Attacks

August seems to have been a better month for crypto security. Compared to previous months, it saw the lowest loss this year, according to the latest report by major bug bounty and security services platform Immunefi.

August witnessed hackers taking $15,082,000 in five specific incidents.

The majority was lost in the hacks of a gaming-focused Ronin Network, which saw a loss of $12 million, and a DeFi protocol Nexera, recording a loss of $1.5 million.

The $15 million marks the lowest loss year-to-date (YTD), the Immunefi team said.

Furthermore, this is a 94.5% decrease month-over-month.

It is also a notable 38% decrease from August 2023. At the time, registered losses stood at $24,581,220.

In total, the ecosystem lost a whopping $1,210,741,330 YTD in 154 specific incidents.

Notably, May alone witnessed over $358 million stolen. This is the highest monthly loss YTD.

May’s loss is followed by $274 million lost in July this year.

January, March, and June stand on a similar level, recording a loss between $133.2 million and $141.5 million.

Though not even close to August, February and April also saw lower stolen sums compared to other months this year, sitting at the two ends of the $70 million level.

100% DeFi Hacks

Centralized finance (CeFi) didn’t sit long at the top per the total volume of funds lost.

In August, decentralized finance (DeFi) surpassed it again. What’s more, 100% of funds were lost in DeFi-related attacks.

This means that DeFi alone suffered the $15 million loss across 5 incidents.

There were no reported CeFi incidents in August.

At the same time, we see no fraud, only hacks.

While hacks continued to be the predominant cause of losses compared to fraud, in August, 100% of the total losses and crypto security breaches were hack-related.

This means that the entire $15 million loss and the five incidents were hacks alone.

Unsurprisingly, the most targeted chains in August were Ethereum and BNB Chain.

Ethereum suffered 3 attacks, resulting in 60% of the total losses.

BNB Chain suffered 2 attacks, or 40% of the total losses.