July Sees 16 Hacks Costing Crypto Sector $266M

 
Florence Muchai
Written By 
Florence Muchai
 
Harsh Chauhan
Edited by 
Harsh Chauhan
August 1, 2024

Crypto hacks go hand in hand with the market bull run. July saw a market spike, with Bitcoin hitting $50 shy of $70,000. In addition, the United States SEC also gave Ethereum ETFs a trading greenlight. With such a positive market sentiment, hackers made a market comeback with India’s WazirX leading in market losses.

WazirX leads crypto losses

A report by PeckShieldAlert shows that “July 2024 witnessed 16 hacks in the crypto space, resulting in ~$266 million (w/o Compound Potential Governance Attack)) in losses.”

July WazirX was hacked, leading to a loss of $234 million in several crypto assets. In addition, the company had to pause transactions due to the breach. After that hack, WazirX sent out a bounty to identify the hacker. In the process, a cybersecurity company, Cyfirma, identified that the North Korean hacker group was behind the theft. 

The stolen assets include $96.7 million in Shiba Inu, $52.6 million in Ether, $11 million in Matic, and $7.6 million in Pepe.

Other notable crypto hack platforms included the algorithmic protocol Compound Finance, which was hacked for $24 million, and the bridging protocol Li.Fi which lost $10 million. Also, the decentralized AI protocol Bittensor and the liquidity provider Rho Markets were hacked for $8 million each.

On-chain data shows hackers have been moving the stolen crypto to the Tornado Cash mixer to evade detection and government tracking.  

On the other hand, June recorded $176 million in crypto losses across 20 incidents. Yesterday, Terra’s blockchain was hacked, causing a loss of $6 million. The hacker got away with 60 million ASTRO (ASTRO), 3.5 million USD Coin, and 2.7 Bitcoins.

Also Read: Senator Lummis Drafts Bitcoin Act to Slash National Debt by Half!

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Florence Muchai
Written by Florence Muchai

Florence Muchai is a crypto journalist at CryptoNewsZ with four years of experience covering Crypto, Blockchain, Web3, NFT, and AI. She has written for MSN and CryptoPolitan, bringing a wealth of knowledge to the industry. Florence holds a Bachelor's Degree in Disaster Management and International Diplomacy and a Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology. She is a digital nomad and explores the intersections of decentralized and traditional finance, offering insightful analysis on wealth creation, financial literacy, and the evolving digital economy. She is ionate about empowering readers with knowledge and delves into emerging trends, regulatory developments, and the impact of blockchain on global finance.