Cryptocurrency market hacks have been on a rampant rise so far this year in 2022. As per the latest Chainalysis report, the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector has been the biggest victim of hackers.
So far through July 2022, $1.9 billion worth of digital assets have been stolen. This is more than 50% in comparison to the same period last year. Chainlaysis notes that this trend doesn’t seem to reverse anytime soon.
Earlier this month, nearly $200 million were stolen from cross-chain bridge protocol Nomad. Similarly, several Solana wallets reported a loss of over $5 million in early August.
Chainlaysis adds that there’s a stunning rise in the funds stolen from DeFi protocols. Furthermore, North Korea’s notorious Lazarus Group is behind a huge majority of the funds stolen from DeFi protocols. As per the Chainalysis report, North Korea-affiliated groups have stolen over $1 billion from DeFi protocols through July 2022. The report further notes:
We shouldn’t expect theft to drop based on cryptocurrency market movements the way scamming does — as long as crypto assets held in DeFi protocol pools and other services have value and are vulnerable, bad actors will try to steal them.
