Funds lost to hacks and scams dropped to their lowest in 2024 in December, as Bitcoin struggled to trade steadily above $100,000 in a low-liquidity market.
A recent report from blockchain security firm CertiK shows a steady drop in losses at the hands of bad actors since October.
Roughly $28.6 million was swiped from the crypto sector, with the majority of losses stemming from just ten incidents.
Exploits emerged as the most damaging attack vector, accounting for over $26.7 million in reported losses.
Other major attack vectors were flash loan attacks and exit scams, with approximately $1.7 million and $0.2 million lost, respectively.
Top exploits
Gempad
The December 17 exploit of decentralized finance protocol GemPad, which streamlines token launches for projects and enthusiasts.
Post-mortem of the incident revealed a hacker was able to manipulate the launchpad’s V2 lock smart contract, allowing them to drain roughly $2.1 million worth of assets.
Efforts to recover the stolen funds are currently underway, but the team is yet to reveal details on the matter.
FEG
DeFi trading and lending protocol FEG was hacked for the third time this year in December, with the attacker draining around $1 million from the project’s token bridge.
Security firm BlockSec found that the bridge’s relayer didn’t verify whether the source address was authorized to trigger withdrawals, allowing the hacker to send fake messages and drain funds across multiple chains.
Meanwhile, Pecksheild pointed to a flaw in how FEG integrated the Wormhole bridge.
Phishing remains a consistent threat
Individual users faced the biggest losses from phishing attacks, with just five attacks leading to approximately $18.3 million in stolen funds, primarily through deceptive links, fake websites, and malicious wallet approvals.
As previously reported by Invezz, last month, a ScamSniffer report reported over $9 million stolen via phishing attacks, which represented a 53% drop from the previous month.
At the time, the researchers remarked that despite subdued losses, the number of affected users remained high.
December saw over 25 hacks
A separate report from PeckShield estimates a 71% drop in funds stolen through hacks this month compared to November.
Around $24.69 million was siphoned across 25 incidents, with the largest share, $12.3 million, linked to a breach at password management service LastPass.
According to an earlier report from security firm Hacken, hacks led to $3 billion in yearly losses across the crypto sector, with centralized finance being the most affected.
Private key theft was the leading attack vector, driving approximately 75% of the recorded incidents.
Drop in losses align with the broader market lull
While it’s hard to gauge the sentiment of bad actors, the drop in December losses could be attributed to a quieter crypto market.
Bitcoin ended the month down 2.85%, its worst monthly performance of the quarter, with liquidity thinning out amid the typical holiday slowdown.
Scammers and hackers thrive in periods of heightened activity, capitalizing on market excitement and high transaction volumes.
In contrast, December’s subdued environment likely offered fewer opportunities for exploitation, leaving malicious actors with less incentive, and perhaps less urgency, to strike.
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