2022 is looking to be the busiest year for the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, at least security-wise. New analysis reveals over $1.6 billion in crypto has been lost to many a different DeFi exploit. It surpasses 2020 and 2021’s total amount combined.
According to blockchain security firm CertiK, the month of March had the most value stolen at $719.2 million, more than $200 million of stolen value in all of 2020.
DeFi exploit nearly crippling blockchain firms
The March amount is partly attributable to the Ronin Bridge breach, in which attackers stole over $600 million in cryptocurrency.
CertiK highlighted the roughly $80 million loss by Fei Protocol, the second most lucrative robbery last month, and the $10 million loss by automated market maker protocol Saddle Finance, which occurred at the month’s end.
April was a busy month for cyber-attacks, with CertiK documenting 31 big incidents, or roughly one every day. The $182 million stolen from Beanstalk Farms via a flash loan attack was the most valuable.
Both protocols used Twitter to offer a bounty to their respective attackers in exchange for recovering stolen funds. While the chances of it happening are minimal, it’s not unheard of. For example, in 2021, a hacker on the Poly Network returned nearly $610 million stolen from the network while also refusing a $500,000 payout.
April marks the busiest month for DeFi exploit
According to CertiK, April 2022 “holds the record for highest dollar amount losses in flash loan attacks ever recorded by us,” with damages from this form of exploit totaling $301.4 million. The combined losses from flash loan attacks in January, February, and March 2022 only amounted to $6.7 million.
According to DeFiLlama, the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi has dipped below $200 billion for the first time since Mar. 16. This concludes the summary of the analysis of this year’s DeFi exploit.