The cryptocurrency community has witnessed an increasing number of hacking incidents during the first two months of 2024. According to reports, hackers and scammers have targeted prominent figures and projects in the industry.
PeckShield, a cryptocurrency security-focused investigative firm, reported a more than 97.6% increase in the total value of cryptocurrency stolen from attacks in February compared to the previous month.
Source: PeckShield
More than 21 cryptocurrency attacks occurred throughout February. In a post on X, hackers stole approximately $360.83 million worth of cryptocurrency in February.
According to a previous report by PeckShield, $182.54 million in crypto was stolen in January. This means the total value stolen increased by 96.7% in February.
However, despite the increase in total value stolen, the number of individual attacks decreased by 30% compared to January. The first month of the year saw 30 different hacking incidents, including the hacking of Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen on the last day of the month.
Larsen’s address exploit accounted for 70% of the total value stolen in January. Similarly, the PlayDapp hack at the beginning of February accounted for about 71% of the stolen funds that month.
The report also revealed that only 1.8% of the stolen funds were recovered, meaning $6.7 million out of the total $360 million stolen was restored. Most of the recovered funds came from negotiations with hackers involved in the Seneca attack, resulting in a refund of $5.3 million.
Top 3 attacks of the month
These high-profile attacks appear to have targeted various individuals and projects within the cryptocurrency community. According to the report, the projects and individuals hardest hit include PlayDapp, FixFloat, and Axie Infinity co-founder.
Without a doubt, the most affected entity in the past month was the popular web3 gaming platform PlayDapp, which lost 200 million initial PLA tokens.
Subsequently, the project lost an additional 1.4 billion tokens after failed negotiation attempts with the perpetrators. The hackers caused $290 million in damages to the gaming platform and ultimately forced it to switch to a new token to protect its customers.
In second place, the DeFi exchange FlixedFloat was robbed of nearly $26 million in Bitcoin and ETH in mid-February.
Hackers dispersed the funds to obfuscate token tracing efforts. Stolen Bitcoin was distributed to multiple addresses, while ETH was sent to accounts belonging to outside entities and centralized mixing pools.
Finally, with over $9.7 million worth of ETH stolen, Jeff Zirlin (Jihoz) suffered the third-largest loss. The Axie Infinity co-founder fell victim to a hack targeting his two addresses. Zirlin’s attack is believed to have occurred due to a “leaked key,” allowing hackers to withdraw 3,248 ETH and immediately convert it into cash.
Recent figures indicate an alarming increase in stolen funds. A previous report from PeckShield revealed that the total value of stolen coins in 2023 was approximately $342 million.
The value for the previous year decreased by 25% compared to 2022. However, the high-profile hacks in the first two months of 2024 have already surpassed the total value of the previous year.
