Over the first half of 2023, malicious actors stole over $665 million from DeFi platforms.
The decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem witnessed a concerning wave of scams and hacks in the second quarter (Q2) of 2023, leading to losses surpassing $204 million.
This revelation comes from a “Q2 De.Fi Rekt Report" published on June 27th by the Web3 portfolio app De.Fi.
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In the report, De.Fi delved into the statistics, revealing an increase of "almost 7 times" on a year-over-year number of DeFi-related hacks.
While only 17 incidents were reported in the same period in 2022, this figure jumped to 117 in the recent quarter. Therefore, the overall loss during the first half of 2023 exceeded a staggering $665 million.
Based on the report, various DeFi platforms lost over $208.5 million. However, they managed to recover $4.5 million through bounties, prosecutions, or other recovery methods.
The report breaks down the top five hack incidents of Q2. They include breaches of Atomic Wallet, Fintoch, MEV-Boost, Bitrue, and GDAC.
Atomic Wallet's June 3rd exploit accounted for a substantial $35 million or roughly 17% of the total quarterly losses. Fintoch's suspected rug pull lost users $30.6 million, while MEV-Boost's attack led to a $26.1 million shortfall. Overall, these three breaches represented over 45% of the Q2 losses.
De.Fi attributed most of the losses to "access control issues," where hackers manage to seize unauthorized control of a wallet. These instances accounted for about a quarter of the total losses, amounting to $75.8 million. Exploits followed closely behind, causing losses of $55.3 million. A further $47.3 million disappeared through exit scams or rug pulls.
While DeFi hacks and scams led to significant losses in Q2, the figure was less than the previous quarter's. At the end of Q1, CertiK reported that losses from January to March exceeded $320 million. This highlights the importance of vigilance, stringent security measures, and responsible financial behavior in the DeFi space.
