$16M in crypto lost to hacks in August — Report

In August, a total of $15.8 million in cryptocurrencies was lost to hacks or attacks.

According to news on August 31 Report According to data from blockchain security firm Immunfi, hacks and fraud resulted in a total of $23.4 million in cryptocurrency losses, a sharp drop from the $320.5 million lost in July. All breaches included attacks against decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, and none affected centralized financial entities.

Of the 21 reported security incidents, five occurred on the Ethereum blockchain and four occurred on the BNB chain. Coinbase’s highly anticipated layer-2 solution, Base, suffered four security breaches shortly after its Aug. 9 launch.

The largest losses included the Exactly Protocol hack on Aug. 18, in which 4,323.6 ether (ETH) ($7.2 million) in user deposits was stolen via a malicious deposit contract.

Meanwhile, on Aug. 25, the lending protocol Magnate Finance deployed on Base orchestrated an exit scam allegedly worth $6.5 million, after prominent DeFi sleuth zachXBT claimed that the Magnate Finance deployer address was linked to the exit scam. All assets have since been removed from the protocol’s smart contracts, and its website and social media have gone offline.

Users have lost $1.25 billion in cryptocurrencies so far this year due to hacks and fraudulent activity, according to Immunefi. In March, DeFi protocol Euler Finance lost $195 million in a malicious flash loan attack. Less than a month later, the Euler hacker returned more than 90 percent of user assets after the developer threatened legal action.