Report: Over $204 Million Lost to DeFi Hacks and Scams in Q2

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Fredrik Vold

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Fredrik Vold

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July 3, 2023 12:13 EDT

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More than $204 million was lost in various hacks and scams in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space during the second quarter of 2023, a new report by crypto portfolio app De.Fi has found.

According to the report, the initial loss for the quarter was as high as $208.5 million before $4.5 million were recovered through law enforcement action and deals with hackers.

The report, titled “Q2 De.Fi Rekt Report,” further said that the number of incidents in the DeFi world increased by almost 7 times compared to the same quarter last year.

Despite a higher frequency of incidents, the total amount lost during the quarter was significantly lower than in the same quarter last year when a whopping $40 billion was lost to scammers and hackers.

In total for the first six months of 2023, over $667 million has so far been lost, the report further said.

The worst month of the first half of the year was March, with $240 million lost and $178 million recovered.

February followed on second place, with $156 million lost and only $30,000 recovered.

Notably, the blockchain network that experienced the larges losses to scams, hacks or other types of malicious acts was Ethereum, with losses of $82.5 million in the second quarter.

However, the network that saw the highest frequency of incidents was BNB Chain, formerly known as Binance Smart Chain (BSC), with 65 recorded cases of scams, hacks or other types of malicious acts for the quarter.

Commenting on the losses seen in crypto so far this year, De.Fi said that the sector “scams, hacks or other types of malicious acts.”

It also said that work to recover stolen funds is lagging far behind and remains an area with significant potential for improvement.

“The recovered amount of $4.5 million is dwarfed by the total losses, indicating the need for stronger measures to trace and recover stolen funds,” the De.Fi report pointed out.