This Crypto Sector Made the Biggest Losses In Crypto Thefts So Far in 2022

Cryptocurrency market hacks have been on a rampant rise so far this year in 2022. As per the latest Chainalysis report, the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector has been the biggest victim of hackers.

So far through July 2022, $1.9 billion worth of digital assets have been stolen. This is more than 50% in comparison to the same period last year. Chainlaysis notes that this trend doesn’t seem to reverse anytime soon.

Earlier this month, nearly $200 million were stolen from cross-chain bridge protocol Nomad. Similarly, several Solana wallets reported a loss of over $5 million in early August.

Chainlaysis adds that there’s a stunning rise in the funds stolen from DeFi protocols. Furthermore, North Korea’s notorious Lazarus Group is behind a huge majority of the funds stolen from DeFi protocols. As per the Chainalysis report, North Korea-affiliated groups have stolen over $1 billion from DeFi protocols through July 2022. The report further notes:

We shouldn’t expect theft to drop based on cryptocurrency market movements the way scamming does — as long as crypto assets held in DeFi protocol pools and other services have value and are vulnerable, bad actors will try to steal them.

The only way to stop them is for the industry to shore up security and educate consumers on how to find safe projects to invest in.

Dropping Crypto Scam Revenue

Interestingly, Chainalysis notes a sharp decline in the total scam revenue so far in 2022. At $1.6 billion by July 2022, the total scam revenue is 65% less than it was by the end of July 2021. A majority of this drop comes from declining prices of crypto assets.

Also, with the market crash, there are less enticing schemes of passive returns leading to lesser potential victims. The Chainalysis report adds: “The biggest scam of 2022 so far has netted $273 million worth of cryptocurrency, just 24% of Finiko’s $1.5 billion revenue through the end of July in 2021”.

At the same time, the darknet scams have been on a major decline after the shutdown of the Hydra darknet earlier this year.