December 26, 2023 – 11:11 pm
Hackers took nearly $2 billion (about 700 billion Hungarian forints) worth of cryptocurrencies in 2023, I reported about it TechCrunch, citing cryptocurrency security firm De.FI. However, this is the first time since 2020 that the value of thefts did not increase compared to the previous year.
The most serious cryptocurrency hack of 2022 occurred against the Ronin Blockchain, which is the basis of one of the most popular cryptocurrency games, Axie Infinity. At the time, the hacker stole approximately $620 million in cryptocurrencies.
The biggest cryptocurrency theft of 2023 happened at the end of September, then from Hong Kong cryptocurrency company Mixin. They stole it $200 million in cryptocurrency. There was another case worth nearly $200 million in mid-March, where attackers stole at least $100 million in cryptocurrencies in four more thefts.
According to Chainalysis, hackers took nearly $3.8 billion worth of cryptocurrencies last year, which is much more than now. Of this amount, 1.7 billion is linked to the notorious North Korean military hacking group Lazarus.
The Lazarus Group gained notoriety in 2014 after it was accused of hacking into Sony Pictures' systems and leaking confidential data. According to the United Nations, North Korea is using money stolen by hackers to evade international sanctions and fund its nuclear and missile programs.
In 2021, hackers were able to steal $3.3 billion. The thefts caused serious damage mainly in the decentralized finance (decentralized finance, DeFi) sector.
