Chainalysis: Cryptocurrency hacks cost $1.9 billion in 2022

Since the beginning of the year, hackers have stolen $1.9 billion worth of assets from various cryptocurrency projects, according to the Chainalysis analytical company. In the first 7 months of 2021, the figure was $1.2 billion.

Analysts stressed that hackers continue to attack various cryptocurrency protocols. For example, during the first week of August, attackers managed to withdraw $190 million from the Nomad gateway and steal $5 million worth of assets from several wallets on the Solana network.

Chainalysis experts noted that hackers have significantly increased attention to decentralized finance (DeFi) projects, and this trend appeared last year. Decentralized projects are more vulnerable to hackers because their codebase is publicly available, making it easier to find and exploit bugs and vulnerabilities. In addition, DeFi project developers are often in a hurry to launch their project and neglect security recommendations.

Interestingly, out of this amount, according to Chainalysis analysts, about $1 billion in assets were received by North Korean hackers, including the Lazarus group. And it is unlikely that the number of hacks will decrease, at least in the near future.

“The only way to stop this trend is for the entire industry to increase the protection of their projects, as well as educate users on how to look for secure protocols. Law enforcement agencies, in turn, need to further improve their ability to confiscate stolen cryptocurrencies in order to render hacks useless,” the company’s blog post notes.

Earlier, Elliptic reported that hackers often use the RenBridge gateway to launder money. Since 2020, $540 million worth of assets have been laundered through the RenBridge bridge.