As per SlowMist’s latest research report, Ethereum experienced the highest losses, amounting to $487 million, followed by Polygon.
According to the SlowMist report, a total of 464 security incidents resulted in losses totaling almost $2.5 billion in 2023. The figure marks a 34.2% decrease in losses compared to 2022, which saw slightly over 300 incidents that totalled $3.8 billion.
Analyzing the project types, decentralized finance (DeFi) emerged as the most frequently targeted sector, experiencing over 280 security incidents in 2023, losses that constituted 60.7% of the total incidents.
Distribution and losses of security incidents in 2023 | Source: SlowMist You might also like: Major crypto hacks of 2023: how industry lost over $1b within minutes
The financial toll from these incidents amounted to $773 million, representing a significant 62.7% decrease in losses year-over-year compared to 2022, which had 183 incidents with losses of around $2 billion, SlowMist reports.
While Ethereum incurred the highest losses due to crypto scams, rug pulls and hacks totaling $487 million, Polygon also lost millions of dollars due to scams and hacks, with losses reaching a total of $123 million.
As per the report, exit scams were the most prevalent cause of loss and accounted for 110 cases worth approximately $83 million. These were followed by account compromise attacks.
As crypto.news earlier reported, the crypto market lost a total of $2 billion in 2023, a number that while high declined for the first time since 2020. According to De.Fi’s REKT database, at least 455 incidents were documented in 2023, with the largest hack amounting to $231 million, attributed to Multichain. Despite the $2 billion total, efforts of cybersecurity experts and white hat hackers led to the recovery of approximately $200 million from the overall sum.
