Cybercriminals Stole Nearly $2B From Crypto In H1 2022 Despite Market Crash: Report

The first half of 2022 saw major cryptocurrencies struggle to maintain their prices, which means it was not a good six months for cryptocurrency holders. However, a new report reveals that despite this situation, cybercriminals and malicious actors managed to siphon nearly $2 billion from the industry.

Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, experienced its most significant price drop in more than a decade in the first half of 2022. Interest in Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) started to subside this year.

“Axie Infinity” lost millions earlier this year and Terra’s stablecoin UST and native token LUNA crashed in May. Despite these, cybercriminals earned billions from their exploits by targeting various blockchain projects.

Photo: AFP / INA FASSBENDER

A report from freemium VPN service provider Atlas revealed that in the first half of 2022 alone, cybercriminals attacked 172 crypto projects and stole $1.97 billion. Of these tracks, the Ethereum ecosystem was extremely affected by malicious actors siphoning over $1 billion from 32 separate events.

Data revealed that the Ethereum ecosystem’s biggest loss was due to the “Axie Infinity” Ronin bridge hack worth around $600 million in Ether and USDC.  Following Ethereum is the Solana ecosystem where malicious actors stole around $383.9 million in fie events.

The report identified the Wormhole attack as the biggest hack in SOL’s ecosystem where they managed to steal around $326 million. Third on the list is the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) ecosystem, which lost $141.4 million. 

BSC encountered a total of 47 hacks and scam events in the first half of this year- a number of attacks no other crypto project has experienced. Collated data revealed that cybercriminals’ activities have increased by 94% in the first half of this year with 175 attacks recorded in the first half compared to the 90 attacks recorded in H1 2021.

Moreover, cybercrime events in Q1 2022 increased by 108% with 79 cyber crimes listed against the 38 events recorded in Q1 2021. Meanwhile, data revealed an 85% increase in cybercrime activities in Q2 2022 with 96 cyber crimes listed compared to 52 attacks recorded in Q2 2022.