2022 became the craziest year for encryption hackers, with losses exceeding 3 billion USD.

Despite the overall poor performance of the cryptocurrency market in 2022, this market remains a huge "digital ATM" for hackers. According to data from a blockchain analysis firm, at least $718 million has been stolen since October. Even more shockingly, the total losses in the crypto industry due to 125 hacker attacks have exceeded $3 billion so far this year. If this trend continues, 2022 is likely to become the highest year in history for the total value of cryptocurrencies stolen.

Data analysis shows that the hackers' attack targets have shifted from exchanges in 2019 to DeFi protocols in 2022. These protocols are typically deployed on public chains and use smart contracts, allowing investors to trade, lend, and borrow on a digital ledger without the need for centralized intermediaries. Hackers exploit security vulnerabilities in coding and structure within the DeFi market to carry out attacks. As DeFi is one of the important ecosystems in the cryptocurrency industry, market participants have a responsibility to seek better security solutions.

October was considered the most active month for hackers in 2022. Among them, vulnerabilities in cross-chain bridges triggered a huge crisis, with 3 cross-chain bridges being attacked, resulting in losses of nearly $600 million, accounting for 82% of the cryptocurrency losses for the month and 64% of the losses for the year. On October 12, a decentralized exchange platform in the Solana ecosystem suffered a hacker attack, resulting in losses of up to $115 million, causing a serious impact on the crypto industry.

In the top ten cryptocurrency attacks of 2022, hackers stole a total of over $1.7 billion in funds. Cross-chain bridges became the targets with the highest scale of stolen funds, with one network being hacked for $540 million, another project for $325 million, and two other projects being hacked for $190 million and $100 million respectively. The most recent cross-chain bridge attack occurred on October 7, when the official bridge of a well-known trading platform was hacked. According to subsequent statements from the platform, approximately $100 million could not be recovered, while the remaining funds were successfully frozen.

It is worth noting that hacker organizations supported by some countries have also begun to target DeFi platforms. Earlier this year, a blockchain analytics company discovered that hacker groups associated with North Korea had stolen approximately $1 billion worth of cryptocurrency from DeFi protocols. This phenomenon highlights the complexity and severity of cryptocurrency security issues, requiring joint efforts from all parties in the industry to enhance overall security levels.