2022 Biggest Year Ever For Crypto Hacking, Report Says

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Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., weighs in on Biden’s challenge to McCarthy to show his budget and discusses his role as chairman of the new House subcommittee overseeing cryptocurrency and fintech.

Last year was the biggest year on record for cryptocurrency hacking, according to a new report.

Chainalysis, a software company, said on Wednesday that $3.8 billion was stolen from cryptocurrency companies in 2022.

October became the biggest month for cryptocurrency hacking, as $775.7 million was stolen in 32 separate attacks. Hackers linked to North Korea, such as those from the cybercriminal syndicate Lazarus Group, led much of the activity and broke its own annual record for the most stolen cryptocurrencies.

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Representation of Bitcoin is seen with binary code displayed on a laptop screen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland, August 17, 2021. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images/Getty Images)

In 2022, the group stole around $1.7 billion worth of cryptocurrency through several hacks that Chainalysis attributed to them. Of this sum, $1.1 billion was stolen in hacks of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. A DeFi protocol is a set of codes that govern how digital assets are used on a blockchain network, according to The Defiant.

In 2021, DeFi became the main target of hackers, which only intensified in 2022.

DeFis protocols as victims accounted for 82.1% of all cryptocurrencies stolen by hackers, up 73.3% from the previous year.

In this photo illustration a Cryptocurrency e-cash Bitcoin coin logo seen displayed on an Android mobile device with a hacker figure in the background. (Miguel Candela/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images/Getty Images)

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Of this amount, a total of $3.1 billion came specifically from cross-chain bridge protocols. Chainalysis said cross-chain bridges are protocols that allow users to transfer their cryptocurrency from one blockchain to another, often by locking the user’s assets into a smart contract on the originating chain and by creating equivalent assets on the second chain.

However, the report notes that the ability of law enforcement and national security agencies to fight back is increasing.

In this file, a photo taken on June 17, 2014 in Washington, DC shows bitcoin medals. (KAREN BLEIER/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)

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“Their growing abilities, combined with the efforts of agencies like OFAC to cut off hackers’ favorite money laundering services from the rest of the crypto ecosystem, means these hacks will only get tougher with each passing year. .

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