Crypto exploit losses in January see nearly 93% year-on-year decline

Aside from the bullish crypto market rally in January, there’s been more positive industry news as the month saw a decline in losses from exploits compared to the same time last year.

According to data from blockchain security firm PeckShield on Jan. 31, there were $8.8 million in losses from crypto exploits in January.

There were 24 exploits over the month, with $2.6 million worth of crypto being sent to mixers such as Tornado Cash. The breakdown of assets sent to mixers includes 1,200 Ether (ETH) and around 2,668 BNB ( $0.00 ) ( BNB ( $0.00 ) ).

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

#PeckShieldAlert ~24 exploits grabbed $8.8M in January 2023.
As of January 31st, 2023, ~$2.6M worth of stolen funds (~2,668 $0.00 ) &src=ctag&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$ BNB ( $0.00 ) & 1,200 $ETH) were transferred into Mixers (TornadoCash, Fixedfloat, and sideshift[.]ai). pic.twitter.com/KlGmDmKFbI

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) January 31, 2023

PeckShield reported the largest exploit from last month, representing 68% of the total, was the one carried out on the DeFi lending and borrowing platform LendHub which lost $6 million on Jan. 12.

Other notable exploits for the month included Thoreum Finance which lost $580,000 and Midas Capital which was exploited for $650,000 in a flash loan attack.

January’s figure is also down 68% from December 2022 which saw almost $27.3 million in exploit losses, according to PeckShield.

Other losses not included in the data include a $2.6 million rug pull on the FCS BNB ( $0.00 ) Chain token, according to DeFiYield’s Rekt database. There was a further $150,000 lost to fake BONK tokens, and a $200,000 rug pull on the Doglands Metaverse gaming platform, DeFiYield reported.

A phishing attack on the GMX decentralized trading protocol on Jan. 4 also resulted in a victim losing as much as $4 million.

Related: Crypto wallets combat scammers with transaction previews and blocklists

Despite the relatively quiet month, blockchain security company CertiK told Cointelegraph in early January that there is unlikely to be a slowdown in attacks and exploits this year.

The firm also reported that the $62 million in crypto stolen in December was the “lowest monthly figure” in 2022.

As of the end of last year, the ten largest exploits of 2022 resulted in a whopping $2.1 billion stolen from crypto protocols.