The cryptocurrency industry has now experienced its most “devastating” month of crypto theft, scams and breaches, with crypto criminals making off with $363 million in November, according to a blockchain security firm.
CertiK said in a post on Nov. 30 (formerly known as Twitter) that exploits alone caused losses of approximately $316.4 million, flash loans caused losses of $45.5 million, and various exit scams caused losses of $1.1 million. loss.
Combining all events in November, we have identified approximately $363 million in losses due to exploits, hacks, and scams
This makes November the most devastating month of the year
Exit fraud worth approximately $1.1 million
Approximately $45.5 million in flash loans
Exploit worth approximately $316.4 million
See more details below pic.twitter.com/QoDy6d8IJH
— CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) November 30, 2023
The largest breaches in November occurred on Poloniex and HTX/Heco Bridge, causing losses of $131.4 million and $113.3 million respectively.
The third largest breach was a phishing attack against one victim, which cost the victim $27 million.
Meanwhile, the $45 million KyberSwap attack accounted for nearly all the losses from flash loan attacks this month.
The latest monthly figures already surpass the all-time record of $329 million set in September, which was largely driven by the $200 million in losses caused by the Mixin cyber attack.
As of the end of November, exploits, exit scams, and flash loan attacks had caused approximately $1.7 billion in losses in 2023. This represents only 54% of all cryptocurrency consumption in 2022, which saw $3.7 billion in crypto-incident losses, up from $1.7 billion in losses in 2021, according to CertiK.
related: Blockchain Audit: Steps to Ensure Cybersecurity
Gu Ronghui, one of the founders of CertiK, said in a recent interview with Cointelegraph that it is not enough to obtain standard smart contract audits today.
He emphasized that thieves are constantly finding new and creative ways to exploit protocols and victims, with SIM swapping and multi-signature vulnerabilities being among the most recent security traps to be exploited.
Christian Seifert, a researcher at security firm Forta Network, believes that vulnerabilities of this nature are hindering adoption, and he also gave an interview to Cointelegraph:
“Imagine losing all your savings because your bank branch was broken into overnight. You wouldn’t save money there.”
Jerry Peng, a research analyst at Web3 analytics company 0xScope, said in a recent report to Cointelegraph that these incidents have “scared away” people who were previously willing to explore the Web3 field.
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