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Losses from cryptocurrency exploits dropped nearly 93% year-over-year in January

Delbert Williams IIBy No Comments2 Mins Read

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Aside from the bullish crypto market rally in January, there was more positive industry news as exploit losses fell compared to the same period last year.

January 31 data from blockchain security firm PeckShield showed $8.8 million in losses due to crypto breaches in January.

There were 24 exploits in one month, sending $2.6 million worth of cryptocurrency to mixers like Tornado Cash. The breakdown of assets sent to the mixer includes 1,200 Ether (ETH) and approximately 2,668 BNB (BNB).

The January figure is 92.7% lower than the $121.4 million lost to exploits in January 2022.

Last month’s largest exploit reported by PeckShield, which accounted for 68% of the total, was run on LendHub, a DeFi lending and borrowing platform, and lost $6 million on January 12th.

Other notable exploits in the same month included Thoreum Finance losing $580,000 and Midas Capital losing $650,000 in a flash loan attack.

According to PeckShield, January’s numbers are down 68% compared to December 2022, when exploit losses were about $27.3 million.

Other losses not included in the data include a $2.6 million lag pull in FCS BNB chain tokens, according to DeFiYield’s Rekt database. Another $150,000 was lost in fake BONK tokens, according to DeFiYield, and $200,000 was withdrawn from him on the Doglands Metaverse gaming platform.

A phishing attack against the GMX decentralized trading protocol on January 4th also cost victims as much as $4 million.

Related: Cryptocurrency wallet fights scammers with transaction previews and blocklists

Despite a relatively quiet month, blockchain security firm CertiK told Cointelegraph in early January that attacks and exploits were unlikely to slow down this year.

The company also reports that $62 million in cryptocurrency stolen in December is the “monthly low” for 2022.

As of the end of last year, the 10 biggest exploits of 2022 had stolen a whopping $2.1 billion from crypto protocols.