Crypto Hackers Stole Almost $700 Million in the First Quarter of 2022

Crypto blockchain hackers stole nearly $700 million in 2022, with attacks on Solana and Binance's smart chain ecosystem accounting for more than half of the total.

According to reports, cybercriminals stole $682 million in 72 attacks during the first three months of the year. Hackers on Solana and BSC networks stole nearly $500 million, $400 million from Solana, and $100 million from the Binance smart chain.

According to a report from Atlas VPN, NFTs were the top target with the highest number of hacks at 20, with a net value of nearly $49 million loss. Some hackers also used phishing attacks on Discord to steal victims’ NFTs.

The Solana ecosystem was hacked four times, while the BSC ecosystem was hacked 12 times. Wormhole, the communication bridge between Solana and other decentralised finance (DeFi) networks, was the biggest hacking target in February this year. Ethereum experienced 16 hack attacks and lost almost $25 million in 2022. 

According to a report by Crystal Blockchain, hackers stole more than $4 billion worth of cryptocurrencies in 2021, almost triple the amount stolen in 2020.