Crypto Hack And Scam Losses Drop To $29 Million In December – A Welcome Relief?

The crypto community continues to reel from losses due to scams and hacks. According to Chainalysis data, funds stolen from crypto platforms increased by 21% from last year to $2.2 billion.

And for the fourth straight year, losses from hacking and crypto scams exceeded $1 billion. While hacking and crypto scams remain a problem for investors, retailers, and the community, at least one development is worth everyone’s attention.

According to PeckShield and Certik, December’s hacking and scam losses only hit $29 million, the lowest in 2024. Reports and analysis from market commentators suggest that scams and hacking incidents slowed down in the last quarter of the year, with December registering the smallest amount of losses.

December’s Losses Lowest This Year

In a Twitter/X post on December 31st, Certik announced that the industry lost $28.6 million to hacks, exploits, and scams in December, compared to $115.8 million in October and another $63.8 million in November. The security firm shared a chart to illustrate the reasons for these losses.

#CertiKStatsAlert

Combining all the incidents in December we’ve confirmed ~$28.6m lost to exploits, hacks and scams.

December’s losses are the lowest monthly losses we recorded in 2024.

Exit scams: ~$0.2m Flash loans: ~$1.7m Exploits: ~$26.7m

More details below pic.twitter.com/gkQ06y4ndz

— CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) December 31, 2024

In the same post, November losses were the second lowest, at $63.8 million. According to Certik, the losses in November can be attributed to exit scams, flash loans, and exploits, which amounted to $48.5 million of the total.

For December, the total losses amounted to $28.6 million, with the bulk of the losses due to phishing scams. According to the Certik chart, one victim lost over $7.8 million due to a phishing scam.

Exploits were also a problem in December, with Gempad losing over $2 million. Next on the list is the exploit of FEG, which registered a loss of $1 million. According to a Certik analysis, the loss on FEG was due to an error in the message verification process.

PeckShield Shares Similar Data

PeckShield, a popular blockchain security company, also shared similar data in a recent posting on Twitter/X. According to its post, the industry witnessed over 25 hacks, which resulted in losses of over $24.7 million, reflecting a 71% decrease from the previous month.

#PeckShieldAlert December 2024 saw 25+ hacks in the crypto space, resulting in ~$24.7 million in losses—a 71% decrease compared to last month. #Top5 Hacks: –#LastPass: $12.38 million –#Yeifinance: $2.2 million –#GemPad: $2.2 million –#MEMECoin Drainer: A victim was drained… pic.twitter.com/p1Y8vjLMfp

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) January 1, 2025

In the same post, PeckShield shared the Top five hacks for December, which included Last Pass, which lost $12.38 million, Yetifinance ($2.2 million), and GemPad ($2.2 million).

A report by Cyvers 2024 Security disclosed that in 165 cases in 2024, cryptocurrencies worth more than $2.3 billion were lost. The security team said that this is 40% more than what hackers got last year, when they stole $1.69 billion worth of tokens.

Deddt Lavid, CEO and co-founder of Cyver, thinks that the rise in crypto theft this year is most likely due to security holes in access controls, especially at crypto storage providers and centralized crypto platforms.

Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView