The hackers stole cryptocurrency by obtaining access to private keys
During the first half of this year, cryptocurrency hackers stole twice as much as they did in the first half of 2023, according to blockchain intelligence firm TRM. By June 24, 2024, hackers had stolen $1.38 billion, compared to $657 million at the same time last year.
Similar to 2023 and prior years, in 2024, a small number of attacks constituted the majority of the stolen funds. Five large attacks accounted for 70% of all the stolen cryptocurrencies.
The amount of cryptocurrency stolen this year is still less than the nearly $2 billion stolen in the first six months of 2022, which marked a record year for cryptocurrency theft. According to blockchain data platform Chainalysis, over $3.8 billion worth of cryptocurrency was stolen from users in 2022.
The report said hackers’ most common method of stealing crypto in 2024 was gaining unauthorized access to private keys and seed codes, which are the strings of numbers that allow one to access a crypto wallet. Hackers also exploited smart contracts and flash loans.
The largest attack in 2024 stole over $300 million worth of Bitcoin and 4,500 tokens from the Japanese crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin, per the report.
The biggest cryptocurrency hack to date took place in March 2022 when hackers attacked the Ronnin network supporting the popular Axie Infinity blockchain gaming platform. They stole approximately $625 million worth of Ethereum and the USDC stablecoin.
The heist involved 173,600 Ether worth just under $595 million and $25.5 million in USDC. U.S. officials stated that a North Korea-backed hacking group, Lazarus Group, was responsible for the theft. A month later, Binance recovered $5.8 million of the stolen funds, but it remains the largest hack in history.
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