- Hackers stole almost $700 million in 72 attacks in the first quarter of 2022, Atlas VPN said.
- Attacks on the solana and Binance Smart Chain ecosystems accounted for over half of these losses.
- NFTs were the top targets for hackers, leading to a near-$49 million loss.
Crypto blockchain hackers stole almost $700 million in 2022, and attacks on the solana and Binance smart chain ecosystems accounted for well over half of that total, according to a report on Tuesday from Atlas VPN said.
Cybercriminals stole $682 million from 72 attacks in the first three months of the year, the report said. Hacks of the solana and BSC networks led to almost $500 million in stolen funds, with $400 million stolen from solana and $100 million from Binance smart chain, according to Atlas VPN's data, which was based on figures from Hacked Slowmist.
NFTs were the top target, with the highest number of hacks at 20, netting a near-$49 million loss. Some attackers used phishing attacks on Discord to steal victims' NFTs, the report said.
"With the rise of new crypto ecosystems, cybercriminals get more targets they can exploit. In addition, the surging NFT trend attracted even more scammers to the industry," Atlas VPN said.
Monetary losses were calculated based on the conversion rate of a particular cryptocurrency when the attack took place.
The BSC ecosystem had 12 hacks while the solana ecosystem was hacked 4 times. Wormhole, a communication bridge between solana and other decentralized finance (DeFi) networks, was the target of the biggest hack in February of this year.
"An attacker exploited a signature verification vulnerability in the network to mint 120K Wormhole-wrapped ether on solana, worth about $334 million," Atlas VPN said.
The ethereum ecosystem experienced 16 hack attacks in 2022 and lost nearly $25 million. It experienced the same number of hackings in the first quarter of last year, making it the top target for hackers.
Exchanges were hacked three times, losing $42 million. Other types of hacks on blockchain caused $52 million in losses in 9 instances.
Most blockchain-related hacks occur when cybercriminals exploit flaws in the project code. Successful hack can cause massive losses to creators and investors on crypto platforms.
Blockchain-related hacks have reached a record-high in the first quarter of 2022, showing an 118% increase compared with the same quarter last year, the data showed.
"The growing market of cryptocurrencies entices not only legit people interested in the technology, but also cybercriminals who want to exploit it," Atlas VPN said.
Hackers stole with more than $4 billion worth of cryptocurrencies in 2021, according to a report by Crystal Blockchain, almost triple the amount stolen in 2020.
And last week, a crypto hacker pulled off one of the largest heists in history, stealing $625 million worth of ether and stablecoin USDC after targeting Axie Infinity's Ronin Network.
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