May’s Financial Turmoil in Crypto
According to a report by CryptoPotato, the cryptocurrency sector faced significant financial challenges in May, with blockchain security firm CertiK revealing losses totaling $42.6 million due to various exploits, flash loans, and exit scams. Despite these setbacks, the sector showed resilience, recovering approximately $96.2 million and thus mitigating some of the economic impact.
Flash Loan Attacks Take the Lead
Flash loan attacks emerged as the primary culprit behind the losses, contributing to around $20.7 million. Sonne Finance bore the brunt of these attacks, losing a staggering $20 million. TLN Protocol also suffered, with losses of $746,000. Other affected entities included GPU and Saturn Token, which reported losses of $32,394 and $8,343, respectively.
The Exploit Epidemic
The sector also grappled with significant losses from exploits, amounting to roughly $19.7 million. Gala Games experienced the most substantial hit, with losses of $21.6 million. This was followed by losses at AlexLab ($4.3 million), Pump Fun ($1.9 million), GNUS.ai ($1.28 million), and Orion ($947,000). Exit scams, though less frequent, still contributed to the financial strain, adding up to about $1.8 million in losses.
A Pattern of Odd-Month Losses
A peculiar trend has been observed with flash loan attacks causing notable losses in odd-numbered months. January, March, and May witnessed losses of $15.3 million, $21.9 million, and $20.7 million, respectively. In stark contrast, the losses in even-numbered months, February and April, were significantly lower, under $150,000 each.
2024’s Crypto Crime Wave
Immunefi, a security service provider, has reported that the year 2024 has seen over $473 million in cryptocurrency vanish in hacks and rug pulls across 108 incidents. The DeFi market remains a prime target for cybercriminals, while centralized finance companies have been spared from such attacks this year. Comparatively, the previous year saw over $2 billion lost to similar incidents. Ethereum and BNB Chain were particularly affected in May 2024, accounting for 62% of the total losses across all targeted chains.
Ongoing Security Challenges
The issue of crypto hacks and exploits persists as a significant concern. For example, DMM Bitcoin, a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, recently disclosed a loss of 48 billion yen (equivalent to $305 million) in Bitcoin (BTC) due to a security breach.
