November recorded a sad annual record with $343 million worth of crypto stolen, surpassing September’s previous record of $332 million. Since the start of 2023, $1.7 billion has been stolen in 296 hacks and rug pulls.
343 million dollars worth of crypto stolen in November
Barely 2 months after the previous record of $332 million set last September, November takes its place as the worst month of the year in terms of crypto hacks, with $343 million stolen over 30 days. In other words, compared with October, November saw the total amount of cryptos stolen multiply by a factor of 15.4.
Amounts stolen monthly since January 2023
The news comes from on-chain analysis firm Immunefi, which also reveals the colossal amount stolen over the whole of 2023: $1.7 billion. A sum scattered between 296 hacks and various rug pulls.
It’s interesting to note from Immunefi’s report that the majority of the funds stolen were through centralized bodies, notably via the $130 million Poloniex hack, the $85 million HTX hack and the more recent Kronos Research hack. As a result, this sector accounts for 53.8% of total losses, with the remainder attributed to the decentralized finance ecosystem (DeFi).
With regard to the blockchains most affected, it appears that Binance’s BNB Chain is by far the most affected, with 22 incidents occurring on its network. This represents 53.7% of all losses in November in financial terms. BNB Chain is followed by the Ethereum blockchain (29.3% of funds stolen), then Arbitrum and finally Avalanche (AVAX), Fantom (FTM) and a few others.
Pie chart representing the blockchains most affected by hacks in November
Interviewed by CNN, Jonah Michaels, head of communications at Immunefi, points out that the amounts stolen via fraud are less present as users of the crypto ecosystem are increasingly making the effort to conduct research before interacting with certain smart contracts.
