According to a report by blockchain security company CertiK, hackers hacked and took away more than $320 million worth of digital money in the first quarter of 2023 alone.
This figure is significantly lower than Q1 and Q4 2022 when hackers took away about $ 1.3 billion and $ 950 million respectively. The announcement of the Silvergate digital currency bank and the liquidation of assets, or the closure of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) by the California authorities (USA) has affected the entire cryptocurrency industry.
Of the stolen cryptocurrencies, more than $31 million was lost to scams, while over $222 million was lost to 52 quick loans and crypto price manipulation
BNB Chain had 139 incidents, the largest number in the first quarter of 2023, CertiK emphasized. Despite having fewer crashes, Ethereum lost $221 million, the most for the quarter.
According to Cointelegraph, while the loss of funds is much lower compared to Q1/2022 and Q4/2022, the first quarter of 2023 still suffers from hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, with 60% coming from the recent Euler Finance hack. On March 13, the Euler Finance protocol was hacked through a fast loan exploit, resulting in nearly $200 million in losses.
Although the amount stolen at first glance seems huge, Euler Finance managed to get most of the money back through negotiations with the hackers. On April 4, Euler Finance announced that after a month of negotiations, the hackers had agreed to refund 90% of the stolen money.
Besides, the trend of negotiating with hackers to reclaim digital currency is increasingly popular. On April 6, lending protocol Sentiment also recovered about $870,000 after offering a $95,000 reward to hackers who hacked the platform