Tallying up the total value in crypto that has been lost to DeFi exploits reveals that October has been the worst month on record, and it hasn’t even hit the half yet.
Industry analytics firm Chainalysis has reported that October has just become the biggest month in history for crypto hacking activities.
On Oct. 13, the company tweeted that $718 million has been stolen from 11 different DeFi protocols through hacks or exploits so far this month.
The figure simply dwarfs the previous highest month for piracy, which was March, when the Ronin Bridge was hacked for more than $600 million.
“At this rate, 2022 is likely to overtake 2021 as the year with the highest piracy on record. So far, hackers have raised more than $3 billion in 125 attacks,” he stated.
DeFi hacking season
Chainalysis compared the nature of the exploits to those of 2019, stating that back then, most hacks targeted centralized exchanges, while now they go after DeFi protocols and cross-chain bridges.
Three bridges have already been breached this month and nearly $600 million has been stolen. These represent 82% of losses this month and 64% of losses so far in 2022.
This week alone has seen exploits on Mango Markets, TempleDAO and QANplatform. Losses from each platform exceeded $100 million from Solana-based DeFi derivatives platform Mango, $2.34 million from yield farming protocol TempleDAO, and $1 million from blockchain platform QAN. quantum resistant layer 1 blocks. Earlier this month, Binance’s BNB chain was mined for over $100 million, adding to the record breaking tally from October.
DeFi Yield’s Rekt database reports that the total amount of money lost to crypto hacks, exploits, and rug thefts has increased by 200% over the last month or so. That total now stands at a staggering $61 billion, according to the panel.
However, the figures are a bit skewed, as it lists the collapse of the Terra ecosystem as the biggest loss of funds in the crypto industry, with $40 billion lost.
TVL tank
The total value locked in the DeFi ecosystem has decreased by 71.5% from its all-time high of $214 billion in December 2021. The current figure is $61 billion, according to DeFiLlama.
The drop is not related to hacking or exploits, but is a result of falling crypto asset prices. Crypto markets have declined by a very similar percentage, 69%, over the same time frame, going from just over $3 trillion in November to $957 billion today.
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