The cryptocurrency industry has now seen its most “damaging” month for crypto thievery, scams and exploits in 2023, with crypto criminals walking away with $363 million in November, according to a blockchain security firm.
Around $316.4 million came from exploits alone, flash loans inflicted $45.5 million in damage, and $1.1 million was lost to various exit scams, CertiK stated in a Nov. 30 X (formerly Twitter) post.
#CertiKStatsAlert
Combining all the incidents in November we’ve confirmed ~$363M lost to exploits, hacks and scams
This makes November the most damaging month this year
Exit scams were ~$1.1M
Flash loans were ~$45.5M
Exploits were ~$316.4M
See more details below pic.twitter.com/QoDy6d8IJH
— CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) November 30, 2023
The largest exploits in November occurred on Poloniex and HTX/Heco Bridge, with losses of $131.4 million and $113.3 million, respectively.
The third largest exploit was inflicted on a single victim who lost $27 million from a phishing attack.
Meanwhile, the $45 million KyberSwap attack accounted for nearly all damage done for flash loan attacks in the month.
The latest monthly figure has surpassed an earlier record of $329 million, set in September, caused mainly by the $200 million Mixin Network attack.
As of the end of November, about $1.7 billion has now been lost to exploits, exit scams and flash loan attacks in 2023. This makes up only 54% of the crypto drained in the full year 2022, when $3.7 billion was drained to crypto incidents, while 2021 saw losses of $1.7 billion, according to CertiK.
Related: Blockchain audits: The steps to ensure a network is secure
In recent comments to Cointelegraph, Ronghui Gu, one of CertiK’s founders, argued that getting a standard smart contract audit isn’t enough these days.
He stressed that thieves continue to find new and creative ways to exploit protocols and victims, with SIM-swapping and multisignature vulnerabilities among the most recent security pitfalls being capitalized on.
Exploits of this nature are hindering adoption, believes Christian Seifert, a researcher at security firm Forta Network, who also spoke with…
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