October Sees Massive Crypto Hacks In 2022

Crypto research firm, Chainalysis named October 2022 as the biggest month of the year for hacking activity so far. Because a total of $718 million was hacked from the decentralized financial protocol in 11 hacks in just 11 days of the month.

Four of those occurred on October 11, costing $122 million. Hackers stole $1.89 million from blockchain QANplatform’s Ethereum bridge, $2.3 million from TempleDAO,  $200,000 in crypto using a smart contract from crypto wallet Rabby Wallet and $118 million from the Solana-native Mango Markets.

Security firm CertiK revealed that the latest attack leveraged two different addresses to manipulate the price of MNGO from $0.038 to $0.91, and then hackers collateralized it with their cryptocurrency. They connected to Mango’s forum and offered to refund the cryptocurrency in exchange for $70 million in stablecoins.

During the summer months, the number of hacks decreased. Chainalysis confirmed in August that the attacks seemed to be stuck in the crypto market. But October starts with record-breaking crypto crimes.

“At this rate, 2022 will likely surpass 2021 as the biggest year for hacking on record. So far, hackers have grossed over $3 billion across 125 hacks,” Chainalysis tweeted.

“Cross-chain bridges remain a major target for hackers, with three bridges breached this month and nearly $600 million stolen, accounting for 82% of losses this month and 64% of losses all year,” a blockchain intelligence firm wrote.

Hackers took more than $3.2 billion in 2021. But 2022 started right with the $325 million exploit of the famous cross-chain Wormhole service, followed by the $625 million Axie Infinity’s Ronin bridge attack, and then $200 million stolen from Nomad bridge.

It’s also worth noting that there have been unexpected hacks this year. While in previous years, from 2019-21, most hacks targeted crypto exchanges, mainly through identity theft, hacking internal exchange networks, or accessing user accounts. As well as they focused on DeFi initiatives that act as a payment mechanism and currency exchange independent of banks or authorities.

Jasper Lee, audit tech lead at crypto auditing firm Sooho.io. said, “despite the current bear market, we’re seeing a lot of activity among hackers, who are targeting various protocols.”