Published: 27.04.2022
Article reading time:
2 minutes.
Atlas VPN reported that losses from hacker attacks on blockchain projects in the Ethereum and Solana ecosystems resulted in losses of $1.3 billion.
In the first quarter of 2022, hackers carried out 78 successful attacks, according to the Slowmist Hacked portal, which gathers information about publicly recognized attacks on blockchain projects. The data was systematized by Atlas VPN specialists.
From January to March, blockchain projects in the Ethereum ecosystem were hacked 18 times, resulting in a loss of almost $636 million. The biggest hack of the quarter in the Ethereum ecosystem occurred at the end of March, when the Ronin Network, the sidechain of the game Axie Infinity, was hacked.
According to the Ronin Network developers, during the hacker attack, the attackers managed to crack the private keys and steal 173,600 ETH and 25.5 million USDC.
In the first quarter of 2022, the blockchain projects of the Solana ecosystem were hacked five times, resulting in losses of about $397 million. The biggest loss of the ecosystem was a hack attack on the Wormhole bridge on the Solana network. Hackers exploited a vulnerability in smart contracts and a signature verification flaw in the Wormhole bridge network to withdraw 120,000 wETH worth approximately $334 million. assets from one blockchain to another.
14 projects were compromised by cybercriminals in the Binance Smart Chain ecosystem, resulting in losses of about $100 million. In January 2022, QBridge’s deposit feature was used to attack the Qubit Finance lending protocol. As a result of the attack, the hackers were able to obtain xETH (xplosive Ethereum) collateral in the amount of $80 million, in which they issued xETH tokens and devastated the bridge address in the Binance Smart Chain network. The hackers managed to withdraw ETH, BTCB, DAI which were subsequently exchanged for 206,000 BNB coins.
Another ten attacks on the blockchain resulted in losses of about $57, and the hack of the IRA Financial Trust, a provider of pension plans in digital assets, cost $36 million.
The Atlas team notes that one of the most popular targets for hackers in the first quarter of 2022 was NFTs: more than 20 attacks causing losses in the range of $50 million.
Also, in addition to the increased criminal activity of hackers on the social network Discord, where attackers carry out phishing attacks to steal NFTs and hack user accounts, there are cases of launching NFT projects that were originally planned as fraudulent.
Source: Bits
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