Here’s How Much Crypto Was Lost in May Due to Hacks: CertiK

According to blockchain security firm CertiK, the cryptocurrency sector lost $42.6 million in May due to exploits, flash loans, and scams.

Despite these setbacks, approximately $96.2 million has been recovered, providing some mitigation of the economic impact.

Flash loan attacks dominate blockchain losses

Flash loan attacks caused the largest losses in the cryptocurrency sector, totaling approximately $20.7 million. Sonne Finance was the hardest hit, losing $20 million, followed by TLN Protocol, which lost $746,000. GPU and Saturn Token also faced losses totaling $32,394 and $8,343, respectively.

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Combining all incidents that occurred in May, we confirmed a loss of approximately $42.6 million due to exploits, hacks, and fraud after recovering $96.2 million.

The losses are about $1 million higher than the April lows of about $41.6 million.

Exit Scams: ~$1.8 million
Fast Loans: ~$20.7 million
Feats: ~$19.7 million

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– CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) May 31, 2024

The exploit software also greatly impacted the sector, causing approximately $19.7 million in losses. Gala Games had the biggest loss at $21.6 million, followed by AlexLab with $4.3 million, Pump Fun with $1.9 million, GNUS.ai with $1.28 million, and Orion with $947,000.

Although less common, checkout scams still contribute about $1.8 million in losses. Of these, Trees On Sol lost $1.11 million, Pii Park $490,000, Novamind $123,019, and Arbalest $91,520.

Interestingly, flash loan attacks consistently resulted in significant losses in individual months throughout the year. January, March and May saw losses of $15.3 million, $21.9 million and $20.7 million, respectively. In contrast, losses in February and April were less than $150,000 each.

Meanwhile, February saw the largest loss overall due to fraud, totaling $58.3 million, with less than 10% of that total recorded in other months.

Cryptocurrency hacks and rug withdrawals continue

As of 2024, the security services provider has introduced Immunefi Reports More than $473 million worth of cryptocurrencies were lost due to hacks and rug sweeps across 108 incidents.

The decentralized finance (DeFi) market remains the main target of hackers, while centralized finance companies have not faced any attacks in 2024. Last year, more than $2 billion was lost to hacks and exploits, about half of the previous year's total.

In May 2024, the Ethereum and BNB chains were the most targeted chains, collectively accounting for 62% of the total losses across the targeted chains.

Cryptocurrency hacks and exploitation remain an ongoing problem. Recently, due to the hack, DMM Bitcoin, a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, announced the loss of 48 billion yen ($305 million) worth of Bitcoin (BTC). In a blog mailDMM Bitcoin reported that 4,502.9 BTC “leaked” from the exchange.