$488.5M in Stolen Crypto Recovered as 2024 Losses Hit $3B – PeckShield

PeckShield’s latest analysis reveals a worrying rise in crypto-related security breaches in 2024 alongside a bullish market.

Despite the grim statistics, recovery efforts have managed to recover hundreds of millions in stolen assets.

Crypto losses in 2024

PeckShield’s 2024 Annual Crypto Security Report reveals that the year witnessed a resurgence in crypto-related breaches, with total losses exceeding $3.01 billion. Of this, $2.15 billion came from hackers, while $834.5 million resulted from scams, representing a 15% increase in losses compared to 2023.

Despite the decrease in the number of incidents over the past three years, the financial impact remains significant, especially in the DeFi sector, which continues to account for the majority of losses. The report highlighted that May was the worst month of 2024 as losses peaked at $662.2 million, followed by $440.8 million in January.

Among the major heists was the DMM Bitcoin breach, which resulted in a loss of $305 million, followed by the PlayDapp exploit with losses of $290 million. On a positive note, recovery efforts managed to recover $488.5 million of stolen assets.

Meanwhile, CertiK recently noted that December saw a significant drop in crypto-related losses to $28.6 million, the lowest monthly figure of the year. The holdings accounted for $26.7 million, with Gempad suffering the biggest loss at $2.14 million. Despite this decline, phishing scams remain a critical threat, with a top victim losing $7.87 million.

Fishing remains a concern

For example, hackers compromised the X account of Animoca Brands CEO Yat Siu, using it to push a fraudulent token and steal $500,000 from crypto users. Meanwhile, a phishing campaign discovered by SlowMist used fake Zoom links to install malware that collected crypto wallet details, leading to losses of over $1 million. The stolen funds were later traced to laundering activities on exchanges such as Binance and Gate.io, with possible links to Russian-speaking groups.

Most recently, cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike identified a phishing campaign in which attackers impersonate the company using fake job offer emails to infect victims with the Monero XMRig cryptocurrency miner.

Phishing emails direct job seekers to download a fake “employee CRM application” from a fake CrowdStrike portal. Once installed, the malware performs checks to avoid detection and then downloads and runs the XMRig miner in the background, using minimal system resources to avoid suspicion.

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