These were the 10 biggest crypto hacks of the year

It’s not just investors who should be happy about the strong performance of Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Co. Because the past year also left crypto hackers with full pockets. We present the ten most successful hacks of the year.

10. MyAlgo

We start our crypto hack journey early in the year. More precisely: on February 27th. A previously unknown hacker managed to compromise Algorand’s MyAlgo wallet, thereby clearing out various users’ cryptocurrencies. The total loot amounts to $9.2 million.

9. Yearn Finance

DeFi fans were also annoyed by a hacker attack a short time later. Because on April 12, 2023, incorrect configurations in the yUSDT Vault (a type of wallet) allowed hackers to exploit a vulnerability in the Yearn Finance protocol. They were able to sweep a total of $11.54 million from the platform. It was later revealed that a large part of the prey was hunted through Mixer and was therefore supposed to have disappeared forever.

8. Gdac

The 8th largest crypto hack of the year also took place in April. Just a few days before the Yearn Finance debacle, hackers had wiped out the South Korean crypto exchange GDAC. The hackers had wiped $13 million, almost a quarter of the crypto exchange’s total assets, from the exchange.

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7. Bitrue

Because it was so nice, we’re staying a little longer in April 2023 – the most successful month in our list so far. On April 14th, the Singaporean Bitcoin exchange Bitrue was also attacked by cyber pirates. They entered the exchange’s hot wallets and managed to take a total of $23 million in cryptocurrencies.

6. CoinsPaid – crypto hack with a start

On July 22, the notorious North Korean hacker group Lazarus struck. In a concerted effort, the perpetrators managed to deprive the crypto payment service provider CoinsPaid of a few US dollars. The attack was the result of a six-month social engineering campaign in which hackers distributed infiltrated software around the globe. They were able to raise $37.7 million.

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5. Stake.com

On September 4, 2023, the online crypto casino Stake.com was attacked. As is suspected, the string pullers here also come from North Korea. Poorly secured hot wallets were the gateway for the attackers. The estimated damage is $41 million in cryptocurrencies.

4. Curve Finance

With Curve Finance, another DeFi protocol makes it onto this coveted hit list. As the sun beat down on the heads of crypto investors, attackers fired up attacks on the protocol’s trading pools on July 30, 2023. The attack was made possible by problems with the Vyper programming language. When the security gap became known, some free riders apparently jumped on the hack bandwagon and enriched themselves together. In total, this resulted in $61.7 million being withdrawn from the protocol. A small ray of hope: Some white hat hackers were at least able to get some of the lost funds back.

3. Atomic Wallet: North Korea strikes back

Things are getting more serious. In June of this year, the Lazarus Group compromised the Atomic Wallet and was able to steal $100 million in cryptocurrencies. As is suspected, a not insignificant part of the cyber loot flows into financing the North Korean nuclear program.

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2. Multichain Protocol

Many chains, high losses: On July 6th, over $125 million in cryptocurrencies were withdrawn from the Multichain Protocol. The target of the attack was the smart contracts of the “Bridges”, i.e. Multichain’s business model. This makes it possible to transfer cryptocurrencies or their values ​​between different blockchains (“bridging”). The former CEO of the company, who was arrested a short time later, came under previously unconfirmed suspicion.

1. Euler Finance – Crypto hack with a good outcome

A hacker named Jacob made it to number one on our crypto hit list. He was able to clear $197 million from the protocol using a flash loan attack. But Jacob decided a short time later to return the money. At least one!