Yahya 
With centralized exchanges as the main targets for vulnerabilities, cybersecurity company Cyvers‘ mid-year Web3 security report indicates that the total sum of stolen crypto assets in 2024 is around $1.4 billion.
Surge in Centralized Exchange Exploits
With overall crypto losses in the second quarter of 2024 exceeding $600 million, there was a 100% rise over last year. Losses on centralized exchanges accounted for 900% of the main cause of this explosion in stolen money. The study links this change to the concentration of assets on these platforms and maybe inadequate security policies.
“This quarter has seen a notable change in attack paths; centralized exchanges (CEX) bear the most of the major incidents, while decentralized finance (DeFi) systems show improved resilience” the research said.
Nature of Attacks and Notable Incidents
With over $490 million of the stolen money in Q2 alone coming from access control breaches—often in the form of phishing attacks—smart contract vulnerabilities accounted for less than $70 million withdrawn. DeFi protocols’ quick response to freeze corrupted smart contracts has shielded consumers, even if dangers still exist when hackers discover fresh weaknesses.
One well-publicized incident was the May hack of Japanese bitcoin exchange DMM, which exposed a private key and caused losses of over $300 million. Furthermore, in June Turkish bitcoin exchange BtcTurk lost around $50 million to hackers.
Recovery of Stolen Funds and Future Threats
With a 42% increase in recovered monies in Q2 compared to last year, victims are having better success in recovering their stolen money even if theft is rising. Still, 76% of missing money never comes back. Cyvers also spoke of potential dangers from artificial intelligence and quantum computing, which may provide hackers advanced new tools for evading onchain security systems.
In essence, even if distributed financial systems exhibit better resilience, centralized exchanges have evolved as the new ground zero for crypto attacks with major security concerns ahead.
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