$363 million in cryptocurrencies stolen in November

The cryptocurrency industry has faced its most damaging month in terms of thefts, scams and crypto exploitations, with criminals making off with $363 million in November, blockchain security report reveals.

According to the firm CertiK, in a November 30 post on X (former Twitter), exploitation attacks accounted for approximately $316.4 million, flash loans caused $45.5 million in damages, while exit schemes resulted in losses of $1.1 million.

The largest exploitations occurred in Poloniex and HTX/Heco Bridge, with losses of 131.4 million and 113.3 million, respectively. The third most significant exploit affected a single victim, who lost $27 million due to a sophisticated phishing attack.

The $45 million KyberSwap attack accounted for the majority of damage caused by flash loan attacks in the month. These figures surpass the previous record from September, with 329 million, mainly attributed to the 200 million attack on Mixin Network.

As of the end of November, cumulative losses from flash loan exploits, scams and attacks in 2023 amount to $1.7 billion, representing 54% of cryptocurrencies drained in all of 2022 and matching 2021 losses, according to CertiK.

Ronghui Gu, co-founder of CertiK, argues that standard smart contract audits are no longer sufficient, as criminals continue to find new ways to exploit protocols and victims. Vulnerabilities such as SIM swapping and multi-signature are the latest security tactics capitalized on by criminals.

Christian Seifert, a researcher at security firm Forta Network, warns that these exploits are hindering cryptocurrency adoption, likening it to losing all your savings due to a bank robbery.

K. Tovar

Source: Cointelegraph

(Reference image source: Unsplash+)

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