In September 2023, the cryptocurrency space experienced its worst month of the year, with a staggering $329.8 million in crypto being stolen through various exploits and attacks.
Blockchain security firm CertiK revealed that a significant portion of these losses, totaling $200 million, resulted from the attack on the Mixin Network that occurred on September 23. This decentralized cross-chain transfer protocol, based in Hong Kong, fell victim to a breach of its cloud service provider.
Other notable incidents during the month included attacks on the CoinEx exchange and Stake.com, leading to losses of $53 million and $41 million, respectively. These attacks have been attributed to the Lazarus Group, a North Korean hacking collective. The group is reported to currently hold $45.6 million in crypto assets.
When tallying up the total crypto lost to exploits in 2023, including these September losses, the figure reaches $925.4 million. July was the second-highest month for exploit-related losses, with $285.8 million stolen.
Additionally, during the same month, $1.9 million was lost to exit scams, $400,000 to flash loan attacks, and an additional $25 million to phishing attacks, according to CertiK.
The cumulative losses in 2023 from exploits, scams, and hacks now stand at $1.34 billion. Blockchain security firm Beosin reported that the losses from hacks, phishing scams, and exit scams in the third quarter of 2023 alone exceeded the combined sum of the first two quarters, which amounted to $330 million in Q1 and $333 million in Q2.
Image by pikisuperstar on Freepik
Disclosure Statement: Miami Crypto does not take any external funding, or support to bring crypto news to the readers. We do not have any conflicts of interest while writing news stories on Miami Crypto.