Beosin: In 2023, the total losses in the Web3 sector due to hacker attacks, phishing scams, and project rug pulls reached 2.02 billion dollars
ChainCatcher news reports that, according to monitoring by the blockchain security auditing company Beosin's EagleEye platform, as of December 25, 2023, the total losses in the Web3 sector due to hacker attacks, phishing scams, and project Rug Pulls reached $2.02 billion. Among them, there were 191 attack incidents with total losses of approximately $1.397 billion; 267 project Rug Pull incidents with total losses of about $388 million; and phishing scams with total losses of approximately $238 million.
In 2023, hacker attacks, phishing scams, and project Rug Pull incidents saw a significant decline compared to 2022, with a total amount decrease of 53.9%. Among them, hacker attacks had the largest decline, dropping from $3.6 billion in 2022 to $1.397 billion in 2023, a decrease of about 61.2%. Phishing scam losses decreased by 33.2% compared to 2022, and Rug Pull losses decreased by 8.8%.
In 2023, there were 4 attack incidents with losses exceeding $100 million, and 17 attack incidents with losses ranging from $10 million to $100 million. The top 10 security incidents had a total loss amount of approximately $1 billion, accounting for 71.5% of the total loss amount from annual attack incidents.
The types of projects attacked in 2023 were more diverse compared to 2022, including DeFi, CEX, DEX, public chains, cross-chain bridges, wallets, payment platforms, gambling platforms, crypto brokers, infrastructure, password managers, development tools, MEV bots, TG bots, and more. DeFi was the project type with the highest frequency of attacks and loss amounts, with 130 DeFi attacks causing a total loss of approximately $408 million.
In 2023, the types of public chains attacked were more frequent, with multiple security incidents involving theft across multiple chains. Ethereum remained the public chain with the highest loss amount, with 71 attack incidents on Ethereum causing losses of $766 million, accounting for 54.9% of the total losses for the year.
In terms of attack methods, 30 private key leakage incidents caused approximately $627 million in losses, accounting for 44.9% of the total losses, making it the most damaging attack method. Exploitation of contract vulnerabilities was the most frequent attack method, with 99 out of 191 attack incidents stemming from contract vulnerabilities, accounting for 51.8%. Approximately $295 million of stolen funds were recovered throughout the year, accounting for about 21.1%, showing a significant improvement compared to 2022. About $330 million of stolen funds were transferred to mixers, accounting for 23.6% of the total stolen funds.
In contrast to the significant decline in on-chain hacker attacks, phishing scams, and project Rug Pull amounts, the off-chain crypto crime data saw a substantial increase in 2023. In 2023, the global crypto industry crime amount reached an astonishing $65.688 billion, up approximately 377% from $13.76 billion in 2022. The top three types of crimes by amount involved were online gambling, money laundering, and fraud.
