The worst month of the year was July, when exploits and attacks cost cryptocurrency investors $303 million.The most recent reminders of decentralized finance’s vulnerabilities came from attacks on Curve Finance and Multichain.Security audit company CertiK stated that cryptocurrency traders had lost $303 million worth of digital assets this month as a result of hacker assaults and cryptocurrency exploits, making July on track to be the worst month of this year thus far in terms of value stolen.
The release of the research coincides with investors in decentralized finance (DeFi) still in shock following this past weekend’s abuse of Curve Finance, a crucial piece of the DeFi ecosystem’s infrastructure.Since Sunday, the popular smart contract coding language Vyper has had some versions vulnerable, allowing hackers to steal $52 million in digital assets from the protocol.Around $125 million worth of assets were taken from the Multichain blockchain bridge protocol earlier this month.The platform suddenly stopped operating and claimed that chief executive Zhaojun had been detained by Chinese officials in May.
The DeFi protocols are the most susceptible components of the crypto ecosystem, according to Ari Redbord, head of legal and government affairs at blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs, who also noted that exploits are still occurring at a “unprecedented” speed and scale.
According to CertiK’s data, of the $303 million this month, investors lost around $285 million due to hacks and exploit attempts, including the Multichain and Curve attacks.Assets worth about $8.7 million were misused by flash loans.This is a sophisticated exploit platform that dispenses with third parties by allowing traders to borrow unsecured funds using smart contracts.Although these loans are legitimate, they are occasionally used by attackers to affect the price of smaller, less liquid tokens.The most famous instance included Conic Finance’s use of flash loans to drain 1,700 ether (ETH), which was valued $3.26 million at the time, from the DeFi protocol.
Investors lost roughly $8.6 million due to exit scams.These scams, often known as “rug pulls,” involve developers marketing a fresh idea to raise money then sapping liquidity.