New findings reveal DeFi related hacks make up 76% of all major cyber hacks in 2021.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) is a system that allows for financial products to become available on a public decentralized blockchain network.
According to the recent Atlas VPN team findings, DeFi related hacks make up 76% of major hacks in 2021. In addition, many fraudsters have started fake DeFi projects to benefit from the crypto industry hype
Even though the first Ethereum based protocol MakerDAO for DeFi was released in 2017, hacks abusing the system were not recorded until 2020.
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In 2019, money lost to hacks was mostly from phishing, ransomware, and other cyberattacks.
A year later, in 2020, DeFi hacks already made up one-quarter of all funds lost to hacks that year.
In the first half of 2021, DeFi hack losses have reached $361 million, surpassing the previous year’s total losses by 180%.
This year, the biggest DeFi hack happened in May when the PancakeBunny protocol faced a flash loan exploit that extracted $45 million worth of crypto assets. The immediate sale of these tokens made the price of Bunny tokens sink from $146 to $6.
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In June 2021, DeFi project WhaleFarmrug pulled $2.3 million from investors. After running just for a few days, the project’s anonymous developers vanished with the funds while their token lost 99% of its value.
Cybersecurity writer and researcher at Atlas VPN William Sword shares his thoughts on DeFi hacks and fraud:“The crypto industry has generated a lot of excitement, however, many newcomers are unaware of the risks. Lack of regulation in the crypto industry allows cybercriminals to thrive either by hacking less secured DeFi projects or by carrying out rug pull scams. For DeFi to become more legitimate, it is essential to establish security and business regulations.”
Source: Written from press release.
