$16M in crypto lost to hacks in August: Report

A total of $15.8 million in cryptocurrencies was lost to hacks or exploits in the month of August.

According to an Aug. 31 report by blockchain security firm Immunfi, a combined $23.4 million in crypto was lost to a combination of hacks and fraud, a significant decrease compared with the $320.5 million lost in July. All exploits consisted of attacks against decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, and not a single incident affected centralized finance entities.

Of the 21 security incidents reported, five took place on the Ethereum blockchain, while four occurred on BNB Chain. Coinbase’s highly anticipated layer-2 solution, Base, witnessed four security exploits shortly after its launch on Aug. 9.

Top losses include the Exactly protocol hack on Aug. 18, when 4,323.6 Ether (ETH) ($7.2 million) in users’ deposits was stolen via a malicious deposit contract.

Meanwhile, on Aug. 25, Magnate Finance, a borrowing and lending protocol deployed on Base, allegedly orchestrated a $6.5 million exit scam, with prominent DeFi sleuth zachXBT claimed the Magnate Finance deployer address was linked to the scam. All assets have since been removed from the protocol’s smart contract, with its website and socials also offline.

Year-to-date, users have lost $1.25 billion in crypto due to hacks and fraudulent activities, according to Immunefi. In March, DeFi protocol Euler Finance lost $195 million in a malicious flash loan attack. Less than one month later, the Euler hacker returned over 90% of users’ assets after developers threatened them with legal action.