In March 2024, PeckShield reported that over $100 million in stolen crypto funds from hacking incidents had been successfully recovered, with 52.8% of the hacked funds returned to their rightful owners. The majority of the recovered funds came from the Munchables incident, where the hacker returned the stolen cryptocurrency following negotiations. Despite a decrease in losses compared to February, March still saw over 30 hacks in the crypto space resulting in $187.29 million in losses, with $98.8 million recovered, surpassing the losses in January.
The top five incidents in March included the Munchables hack, which resulted in $97 million in losses (recovered), followed by the Curio hack, the Prisma Finance breach, the NFPrompt hack, and the WOOFi exploit. The Munchables incident involved the exploitation of a non-fungible token game on the Blast network, with the hacker eventually returning the stolen funds without any ransom demands. Similarly, negotiations are underway for the recovery of approximately $11 million in stolen digital assets from the Prisma Finance incident, where the hacker claimed it was a “white hat rescue.”
In the first quarter of 2024, the total amount lost to hacking and fraudulent activities reached approximately $336.3 million, a decrease from $437.5 million in 2023. This decrease can be attributed to 46 hacking incidents and 15 cases of fraudulent activities during this time period. The most significant attack of the quarter targeted the cross-chain bridge protocol Orbit Bridge on New Year’s Eve, resulting in $81.7 million in losses. Ethereum and the BNB Chain were the most targeted blockchains, with both networks accounting for 73% of the total losses.
January witnessed the highest monthly losses in Q1, totaling $133 million, with the second-largest attack of the quarter involving a $62 million exploit on Munchables. Overall, $73.9 million of the stolen funds from seven exploits in Q1 were successfully retrieved, representing a 22% recovery rate. Hacking incidents dominated the losses, accounting for 95.6% across 46 incidents. Fraudulent activities, scams, and rug pulls made up 4.4% in 15 incidents. Ethereum and BNB Chain were the most targeted blockchains, with attacks also occurring on Arbitrum, Solana, Optimism, Bitcoin, Blast, Polygon, Conflux Network, and Base.
In the Munchables incident on March 26, the project disclosed that it had been exploited, with initial losses estimated at $62 million. The hacker, later identified as one of the developers, returned the stolen funds without any ransom demands. On March 28, the Prisma Finance incident involved approximately $11 million in stolen digital assets, with negotiations ongoing between the protocol and the hacker. The Curio hack on March 24 saw losses initially estimated at $16 million, but PeckShield suggests it may be closer to $40 million in stolen crypto funds. The NFPrompt hack resulted in about $10 million in losses, and the WOOFi decentralized exchange suffered losses of approximately $8.5 million.
Overall, the recovery of stolen funds from hacking incidents in March and the first quarter of 2024 shows a positive trend in addressing security vulnerabilities in the crypto space. With continued efforts to enhance cybersecurity measures and establish effective recovery mechanisms, the industry can work towards minimizing the impact of malicious activities and protecting investor assets.
