The biggest cryptocurrency hacking attacks for 2024: how do fraudsters steal billions worth of coins?
The methods of attackers in hacking attacks have become more sophisticated, and the criminals themselves continue to cause losses to the crypto industry for huge sums. Alas, the 2024 statistics show an increase in the volume of losses compared to the previous year. According to analysts at TRM Labs, more than $2.2 billion was stolen as a result of various kinds of hacker attacks this year – and that’s more than $1.8 billion for 2023. So it’s a good time to look back at the most high-profile such cases.
Today, we’ve also summarised the biggest events over the past year. In particular, we’re talking about the launch of spot Bitcoin-ETFs, the sentencing for the former head of crypto exchange FTX, Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election and the rise of BTC to the $100,000 mark.
Newly elected US President Donald Trump
These are not all the most important situations in 2024. The full list can be found at the link.
The biggest hacker attacks of 2024 in crypto
The first place in terms of stolen funds is occupied by the incident with Japanese crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin. In May, the trading platform lost more than 4,500 BTC or about $308 million at the time. And analysts still do not understand how exactly the attackers were able to steal funds from the exchange.
At the same time, representatives of TRM Labs suggested that the reason could be stolen private keys. In other words, the hackers got to the key combinations that opened access to the contents of the desired address, after which they sent digital assets to wallets under their control.
DMM Bitcoin platform logo
According to Decrypt’s sources, the exchange is continuing the closure process and transferring customer funds to another platform. The company in question is SBI VC Trade, which is taking over asset management.
The second place is occupied by PlayDapp, which was attacked in February. In that case, hackers exploited a vulnerability in the private key storage system and stole $290 million in PLA tokens in two incidents. The attackers also ignored an offer to return the funds for a $1 million reward.
As of today, the stolen funds are still missing. And with each passing hour, there is less and less hope of recovering the lost assets.
Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX was attacked in June – then hackers stole about 235 million dollars. After the hack, WazirX suspended all withdrawals, leaving users without access to their assets. Elliptic experts suggested that the attack was carried out by a hacker group funded by North Korea.
In August, the exchange’s parent company, called Zettai Pte Ltd, secured a four-month moratorium from the Singapore High Court to stabilise its finances. However, October saw an unexpected twist, with the co-founder of rival exchange CoinSwitch accusing WazirX of transferring $75 million worth of user funds to major exchanges Bybit and KuCoin after the attack.
The amount of funds stolen in the hack of the WazirX trading platform
WazirX representatives later said the exchange was in the process of “token rebalancing” and would soon provide customers with instructions on next steps to pay creditors.
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Even individuals could be in the crosshairs of fraudsters: On 30 January 2024, hackers attacked Ripple co-founder and chairman Chris Larsen. At the time, the entrepreneur said on Twitter that “unauthorised access to several of his personal XRP wallets has occurred”. However, he also assured that Ripple itself had not been attacked.
Nevertheless, it was an elaborate and detailed operation. According to crypto analyst ZachXBT, the hackers stole about 213 million XRP worth $112.5 million at the time, which they then laundered through exchanges. Attempts to recover the stolen assets were unsuccessful.
Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen
Back on 1 January 2024, hackers managed to withdraw more than $80 million from the wallets of the Orbit Chain project. The criminals stole ether and DAI tokens, after which they performed a series of actions to obfuscate their tracks.
Months later, millions of dollars in stolen crypto were transferred via cryptomixer Tornado Cash. The project team, with the exception of a statement in January apologising for the incident, has provided virtually no updates on what happened or how it intends to recover the funds.
Cryptocurrency investor and hardware wallet
A telling case we covered in the middle of the month deserves a special mention. Back then, a secured investor lost 10 bitcoins equivalent to approximately one million dollars and NFT for 1.5 million. Crucially, he had stored the private keys using a hardware wallet, meaning that in theory he was doing everything right.
However, as it turned out, the user signed a malicious transaction in early 2022. The hackers eventually gained access to his wallet, but for some reason decided to wait a few years before carrying out the attack.
These cases remind us that to succeed in the crypto industry, it is not enough to buy promising coins at low prices. It is also important to preserve them, and sometimes this component is just as challenging. Therefore, investors should definitely care about and invest in the security of digital assets.
Look for more interesting things in our crypto chat. There we will discuss other important news related to the world of decentralised finance and blockchain platforms.
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