The two largest crypto hacking attacks in Q1 2024 were incidents with the cross-chain bridge protocol Orbit Bridge and Blast-based nonfungible token game Munchables.
A Q1 2024 research report published by blockchain security firm Immunefi revealed that the cryptocurrency industry saw a 23% decline in losses caused by hacking attacks and scams in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.
To be precise, the total amount lost in hacking and fraud incidents in Q1 2024 amounted to the fiat equivalent of $336.3 million, down from $437.5 million in the same quarter of 2023.
As for the distribution of the lost funds, $321,6 million was obtained by hackers across 46 incidents while $14,7 million was lost to fraud in a total of 15 incidents.
The biggest and most costly crypto hacking and fraud incidents were the exploits of Orbit Bridge on New Year’s Eve and a hacking attack on the Munchables token game. Together, these two cases account for $144.5 million, or 43% of the overall lost funds amount. However, in the latter case, the funds ($62 million) were fortunately recovered within 24 hours.
The report noted that decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms remain the main target for hackers. Their vulnerabilities often result in private key compromise. That calls for enhanced security measures across code and protocol infrastructure.
Among the blockchain networks, Ethereum was the most targeted chain, with 33 incidents, accounting for 51% of the losses. The second most targeted blockchain – BNB Chain experienced 12 attacks, having its fair share of 22% of the exploited funds. Other incidents were registered on Arbitrum, Solana, Optimism, Bitcoin, Blast, Polygon, Conflux Network and Base.
Although $73,885,000 or 22% of the total losses in Q1 2024 has been recovered in 7 specific situations, the statistics on stolen funds recovery have been twice less optimistic than in the same period last year (40.5%).
Nevertheless, we see an ongoing positive trend in Web3 and blockchain security. Besides the Q1 2024 decline, there was a twofold decrease (51%) in losses to crypto hacks and other cybersecurity incidents in 2023.
