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July saw $266 million in attacks on decentralized cryptographic protocols.
A significant rise in attacks against decentralized protocols in July, with a total loss of $266 million, is a alarming trend for the cryptocurrency industry.
A new report from blockchain research firm PeckShield says this is 51% more than the $176 million that was reported in June.
WazirX, one of India’s biggest bitcoin exchanges, was the target of one of the biggest hacks last month. The exchange lost $230 million in what has been called a very sophisticated hit by hackers in North Korea.
WazirX had to temporarily stop transactions while it started a program to get back the money that was stolen. Unfortunately, the attack on WazirX was one of the worst ever for the exchange. It shows that even big sites can be broken into.
A decentralized lending system called Compound Finance was also one of the well-known targets of the July attacks. A group called the “Golden Boys” planned an attack on the protocol’s control.
The attackers were able to get a plan approved that gave 499,000 COMP tokens, worth $24 million, to a vault they controlled. This event shows the dangers of decentralized governance systems, where bad people might be able to change plans to get what they want.
Notable protocol breaches in july: LI.FI, Bittensor, Rho Markets, and Terra
There was a hack on July 16 that cost $9.73 million to LI.FI, a cross-chain liquidity aggregation protocol. Cybercriminals are targeting more and more protocols, and this incident shows that the whole business needs to take stronger security measures.
An autonomous machine-learning network called Bittensor was one of the first to be hacked last month. An attack on the network’s staking system cost it $8 million on July 3. The event was a stark warning of how hard it is to keep decentralized networks safe, especially ones that use new technologies like machine learning.
A $7.6 million breach happened at Rho Markets, a loan protocol. However, in a strange turn of events, the thieves tried to return the money they stole, saying it wasn’t a hack. This odd event makes us wonder why these kinds of breaches happen and whether some attackers might be thinking about what’s right.
As of July 31, someone broke into the Terra blockchain and took coins worth $6.8 million. The hack took advantage of a flaw in reentrancy that had been known about for months. These hits show how important it is to fix holes quickly so they don’t cause more damage.
DeFi protocols hit hard
There was a flash-loan attack on July 12 that cost Dough Finance $1.8 million in Ethereum and USD Coin. In the world of decentralized finance (DeFi), this kind of attack is becoming more popular. It involves borrowing a lot of money to change market prices.
Minterest, a different way to lend and borrow money, said it lost $1.4 million when the exchange rate on one of its markets changed. That event shows how hard DeFi systems are to hack and how many ways there are for bad people to do it.
Someone broke into the decentralized stake website MonoSwap and stole $1.3 million in cash. It’s important to know how hard it is to keep things safe after this leak.
The last thing that was found was a hack on the digital money website Delta Prime that cost $1 million. The $900,000 that was stolen was eventually found and returned. They are at least getting some of their money back. There is some good news about a bad month for safety.
This is proof of how badly the self-driving finance business needs more safety steps and close watch. In July, there were more strikes. Threats are getting better all the time, so it’s more important than ever to stay safe and have quick plans for what to do. In order to keep things safe and honest, people who use cryptocurrency need to always work together and come up with new ideas.
