More than $300 million in digital assets were lost to crypto hacks and exploits in the second quarter of 2023, according to on-chain data compiled in the quarterly report by the blockchain security company CertiK.
In the report, CertiK showed that there were a total of 212 security incidents in the quarter. The firm noted that across the incidents, malicious actors drained a total of $313,566,528 from Web3 protocols. Compared to the second quarter of 2022, when hacks and exploits took $745 million, the security firm pointed out that there was a 58% decline in the amount lost.
Despite the lower total amount recorded compared to 2022, the quarter saw an increase in the value lost to exit scams, which amounted to around $70 million in the second quarter of 2023. This is almost double the losses from similar scams in the first quarter, which was around $31 million.
Meanwhile, losses from flash loans and oracle manipulation exploits saw a drastic decrease in the second quarter compared to the first quarter of 2023. In the first quarter, there were a total of 52 oracle manipulation attacks leading to losses of around $222 million, with the infamous Euler Finance hack contributing 85% to the losses.
In the second quarter, there were a total of 54 flash loan and oracle manipulation attacks, which led to losses of around $23 million, an 89% decline compared to the first quarter.
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Apart from this, CertiK also highlighted that out of all the blockchains the firm analyzed, BNB Chain recorded the most incidents, with 119 incidents leading to $70,711,385 in losses. Ethereum came in second place, with 55 incidents netting hackers $65,999,953.
Meanwhile, a report from PeckShield showed that half of stolen nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are being sold within three hours of being stolen by malicious actors — indicating that hackers are quick to offload their ill-gotten gains after performing NFT theft.
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Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-hacks-and-exploits-snatch-over-300m-in-q2-2023-report
