Hackers Stole USD 670M from DeFi Projects in Q2, Up by 50% from Q2 2021

cryptonews.com:

Hackers and fraudsters stole a total of USD 670.7m from various crypto protocols during the second quarter of the year, according to a report by major bug bounty and security services platform Immunifi.

In 50 instances of both successful and semi-successful hacking attempts, decentralized finance (DeFi) projects lost USD 670,698,280 during the last quarter, said the report shared with Cryptonews.com. The figure is up by almost 50% compared to Q2 2021 when hackers and fraudsters stole USD 440,021,559.

The report claimed that the bulk majority of the losses (almost 97%) happened as a result of hacks. It added that blackhat hackers are now primarily targeting and exploiting DeFi projects, as 49 out of 50 instances involved DeFi protocols.

Beanstalk, a decentralized credit-based stablecoin protocol, ranks first among the top losses with around USD 182m lost due to an exploit. 

The next top hacks include the Harmony Horizon Bridge, Mirror Protocol, and Fei Protocol accounts, which lost USD 100m, 90m, and 80.3m, respectively.

This information comes as a report by crypto research firm Chainalysis found that cryptoassets stolen from DeFi protocols rose by a staggering 1,330% in 2021, reaching USD 2.3bn.

The report said that DeFi hacks continue to account for the larger share of all crypto hacks. For instance, 31% of the total amount of crypto stolen in 2020 came from DeFi projects, while in 2021, more than 71% of all crypto stolen was drained from DeFi protocols.

“In other words, as DeFi has continued to grow, so too has its issue with stolen funds,” the report said.

Glassnode also noted that hackers have recently shifted their focus from crypto exchanges and centralized crypto platforms toward DeFi projects mainly because they are