The total value of stolen cryptocurrency hacks increased 97.6% in February
The cryptocurrency community has seen an increasing number of hacks in the first 2 months of 2024. According to reports, hackers and scammers have targeted prominent figures and projects in the industry.
According to PeckShield, a security-focused cryptocurrency investigator, February saw the total value of cryptocurrency stolen from attacks increase by more than 97.6% compared to the previous month.
Source: PeckShield
More than 21 crypto attacks throughout February
On an X post, in February, hackers stole around $360.83 million in cryptocurrency hijacks.
According to a previous report by PeckShield, $182.54 million in crypto was stolen in January. This means that the total value stolen increased by 96.7% in February.
However, the 21 hacks represent a 30% decrease in the number of individual attacks compared to January. The first month of the year saw 30 different hacks, including the hack of Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen on November 1. last of the month.
Larsen's address exploit accounted for 70% of the total value stolen in January. Similarly, the PlayDapp hack that occurred in early February accounted for about 71% of the money stolen that month.
The report also revealed that only 1.8% of the stolen funds were recovered, which is $6.7 million out of the total $360 million recovered. Most of the recovery came from negotiations with hackers related to the Seneca attack, which ended in a refund of $5.3 million.
Top 3 attacks of the month
These high-profile attacks appear to target multiple figures and projects in the crypto community. According to the report, the projects and individuals that suffered the biggest losses include PlayDapp, FixFloat, and co-founder Axie Infinity.
Without a doubt, the biggest loser in the past month was the famous web3 gaming platform PlayDapp, whose initial 200 million PLA tokens were appropriated.
Subsequently, the project lost another 1.4 billion tokens after failed negotiation efforts with the criminals involved. Hackers caused the gaming platform to lose $290 million and were eventually forced to decide to switch to a new token to protect customers.
In second place, DeFi exchange FlixedFloat had nearly $26 million in Bitcoin and ETH stolen mid-month.
Hackers dispersed the funds to obfuscate the tracing of tokens. Stolen Bitcoins were distributed to multiple addresses, while ETH was sent to externally owned accounts and centralized mixers eXch.
Finally, with over $9.7 million worth of ETH stolen, Jeff Zirlin (Jihoz) suffered the third largest loss. Axie Infinity co-founder fell victim to a hack of two of his addresses. Zirlin's attack is said to have occurred due to a "leaked key", allowing the hacker to withdraw 3,248 ETH and immediately exchange it for cash.
Recent numbers show that the amount of stolen money is increasing at an alarming rate. A previous report from PeckShield revealed that the total value of stolen coins in 2023 was around $342 million.
Last year's value dropped 25% compared to 2022. However, high-profile hacks in the first two months of 2024 surpassed the previous year's total.
