Web3 Loses $1.2 Billion to Hacks and Rug Pulls so far in 2023: Report

Web 3 platforms have lost over $1.2 billion so far this year in hacks and rug pulls, according to a report from web3 bug bounty platform Immunefi. 

The report revealed a total of 211 separate incidents contributing to this massive sum, with the month of August alone accounting for $23.4 million in losses.

The surge in losses during August mostly contributed to projects hosted on the newly launched Ethereum Layer 2 Base network. 

This Coinbase-incubated network experienced vulnerabilities across four distinct projects since its unveiling on August 9th. 

As per the report, Ethereum faced the most significant number of attacks, with five distinct incidents affecting protocols built on the network. 

BNB Chain and Base Witness Heavy Losses due to Hacks

BNB Chain and Base both experienced four incidents each, with exploitations identified in projects like LeetSwap, SwirlLend, Magnate Finance, and RocketSwap. 

Together, these three chains collectively accounted for a substantial 62% of all losses in the month of August.

The analysis also delves into the types of attacks that have contributed to these losses. 

Hacks have emerged as the dominant cause of financial setbacks, overshadowing fraud. 

In August, hacks were responsible for a staggering $15.8 million in losses, constituting a substantial 67.7% of the total monthly sum. 

As reported earlier, Magnate Finance rug pulled with over $6.5 million in funds. 

Balancer Protocol was also exploited this month for nearly $900,000, just a few days after a critical vulnerability was reported affecting a number of V2 pools. 

Comparatively, fraud accounted for $7.6 million, making up the remaining 32.3%.

The study indicates that decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms were the primary targets for exploits in August. Centralized platforms managed to evade major incidents during this period.

Immunefi also dispersed over $80 million in bounties, contributing to the prevention of over $25 billion in potential user fund losses across various protocols including Chainlink, The Graph, Synthetix, and MakerDAO.