Crypto exploit losses in January see nearly 93% year-on-year decline

Aside from the bullish crypto market rally in January, there’s been more positive industry news as the month saw a decline in losses from exploits compared to the same time last year.

According to data from blockchain security firm PeckShield on Jan. 31, there were $8.8 million in losses from crypto exploits in January.

There were 24 exploits over the month, with $2.6 million worth of crypto being sent to mixers such as Tornado Cash. The breakdown of assets sent to mixers includes 1,200 Ether (ETH) and around 2,668 BNB (BNB).

The January figures are 92.7% lower than the $121.4 million lost to exploits in January 2022.

#PeckShieldAlert ~24 exploits grabbed $8.8M in January 2023. As of January 31st, 2023, ~$2.6M worth of stolen funds (~2,668 $BNB & 1,200 $ETH) were transferred into Mixers (TornadoCash, Fixedfloat, and sideshift[.]ai). pic.twitter.com/KlGmDmKFbI

PeckShield reported the largest exploit from last month, representing 68% of the total, was the one carried out on the DeFi lending and borrowing platform LendHub which lost $6 million on Jan. 12.

Other notable exploits for the month included Thoreum Finance which lost $580,000 and Midas Capital which was exploited for $650,000 in a flash loan attack.

January’s figure is also down 68% from December 2022 which saw almost $27.3 million in exploit losses, according to PeckShield.

Other losses not included in the data include a $2.6 million rug pull on the FCS BNB Chain token, according to DeFiYield’s Rekt database. There was a further $150,000 lost to fake BONK tokens, and a $200,000 rug pull on the Doglands Metaverse gaming platform, DeFiYield reported.

A phishing attack on the GMX decentralized trading protocol on Jan. 4 also resulted in a victim losing as much as $4 million.

Related: Crypto wallets combat scammers with transaction previews and blocklists

Despite the relatively quiet month, blockchain security company CertiK told Cointelegraph in early January that there is unlikely to be a slowdown in attacks and exploits this year.

The firm also reported that the $62 million in crypto stolen in December was the "lowest monthly figure" in 2022.

As of the end of last year, the ten largest exploits of 2022 resulted in a whopping $2.1 billion stolen from crypto protocols.