By George Ward
The smart contract security platform Certik reported that April had been the most challenging period for the cryptocurrency sector. According to the cyber security platform, attacks on the crypto space reached more than $100 million last month, with DeFi as the most targeted sector.
Crypto Attacks On The Rise
Per a recent report, the smart contract security firm noted that nearly $103.6 million was stolen from the sector in a series of hacking attacks and scams in April alone. Certik further explained that flash loans were the most common form of attack in the crypto space, with $19.9 million already drained.
However, the DeFi ecosystem saw the most attacks, according to the blockchain security firm’s report. Certik further mentioned that this type of attack has continued to be the most problematic issue for the DeFi space to fix.
On the other hand, exit scams have drained victims of $9.4 million, with exploits taking the lion’s share of the losses, with $74.5 million stolen. Apart from this, MEV Bots recorded the single largest attack, with $25.3 million in losses recorded so far.
In addition, Bitrue and GDAC recorded $22 million and $13 million losses due to exploits. In the case of exit scams, the primary culprit was Merlin DEX, with $2.7 million worth of crypto assets siphoned from its platform.
Ordinance Finance followed with $1 million funds stolen. However, Yearn Finance witnessed the largest flash loan attacks, with $10.1 million drained, followed by Hundred Finance which recorded a $7.4 million theft.
Experts opined that the recent Certik report indicates that the DeFi sector still has a long way to go to protect investors’ funds on decentralized platforms. So far, 2023 is on track to replicate or surpass 2022 regarding funds loss.
Analysts at Certik noted that this is one area that DeFi players must strive to address as the market continues to expand.
Investors Panic Over Euler Finance Hack
There have been numerous attacks on crypto platforms in 2023, and millions of dollars worth of crypto assets are siphoned from several exchanges. However, this year’s attacks arose from exploits on the protocol’s logic system.
One notable attack involving protocol logic is the one that happened to Euler Finance. Euler Finance saw a massive attack on its ecosystem in March after hackers exploited its protocol and stole $197 million.
However, after negotiating with the hackers, the DeFi platform reportedly recovered nearly all the stolen funds. Similarly, Sentiment Finance, a DeFi exchange, also suffered a major exploit losing almost $1 million after the attacker took advantage of a systemic bug.
Like the Euler Finance attack, the Sentiment team negotiated with the attacker to retrieve 90% of the stolen funds. Going by the happenings in the crypto space, experts believe that the current year might be better than the last.
There have been fewer exploits and attacks since January 2023 compared to the same period last year. It can be recalled that in February 2022, attackers stole $359 million from several crypto trading platforms.
But in February 2023, the figure was less, with only $20 million stolen that month. Meanwhile, experts noted that the considerable variation was because the attack was on a single platform, adding to the total funds stolen.