An entity called, Certik, which is a blockchain security firm, noted an anomaly at the end of 2022. The firm notes that as compared to the months from January to November, December was an exception in the crypto industry.

Certik explains that the monetary loss in December 2022 in the crypto industry was way too low as compared to previous months.

For instance, the security firm notes that the losses in December 2022 caused due to crypto hacking, exit, and other scams were $62.2 Million.

As history goes, December was always known for being one of the most favorite months for cryptocurrency hackers.

During the Holiday period, the hackers want to have a great time and for this purpose, they target crypto projects. The reason the crypto projects are targeted is that they are mainly decentralized.

Unexpected Reduction in Monetary Losses in December 2022

It was on 31st December when Certik praised December in a tweet for reduced monetary losses caused by hackers, exploiters, scammers, etc.

The firm informed that contrary to huge losses suffered between January and November, losses in December were the lowest.

Certik pointed out that cybercriminals executed at least 23 successful attempts of causing a monetary loss in December 2022 alone. However, they managed to steal from the industry funds amounting to $62.2 Million only.

Out of $62.2 Million, over $15 Million was attributed to exit scams and over $7 Million belonged to attacks known as ‘flashloan’.

The security firm also informed that the decentralized finance (defi) protocol, which incurred most of the losses from flashloan attack, was “Lodestar”.

On the other hand, ‘Defrost Finance’, a Ponzi crypto investment scheme was named the most lethal exit scam of December 2022.

Total Number of Cyber Attacks on Crypto in December 2022

Although, Certik’s data shows that only 23 cyber-attacks were successful yet the total number of attacks was more than that.

Certik also pointed out that the most number of attacks, including successful attacks, were recorded in the month of October 2022.

There were approximately 36 successful attacks caused in October 2022 alone and all of them were major.

In October alone, the digital asset industry saw the stealing of over $595 Million at the hands of exploiters, scammers, and other cyber-criminals.

On other hand, November 2022’s largest exploit was of FTX which was executed on the day when FTX filed for ‘bankruptcy protection’.

FTX’s exploiters looted more than $477 Million from the firm which was already edging towards its eventual end.

Thereafter, in the same month, exploiters stole $28 Million from Deribit and turned Deribit into November’s second biggest victim of exploitation.

2022 A Record-Breaking Year In Terms of Losses Caused By Cyber Attacks

The crypto industry carried forward its multi-year-old legacy. It is usual in the crypto industry that the ending year becomes worse than the previous in terms of losses caused by cyber-attacks.

Apart from FTX’s attack in 2022, there were a number of attacks throughout the year which caused massive losses. These hacks have resulted in people losing billions in total to the attacks.

Hackers successfully stole crypto funds worth more than $569 Million which belonged to Binance. Later, Ronin came under attack and was made to suffer a loss exceeding $540 Million.

At third was Wormhole, whose exploiters took away more than $326 Million. This is a huge amount that the hackers were able to steal from the network.

DeFi – Top Target of Cybercriminals

DeFi protocols turned out to be the high-end targets of cybercriminals in 2022. Funds of approximately $2.7 Billion were reportedly stolen and gone missing in cyber-attacks from the DeFi economy in 2022.

Defi’s losses for 2022, are almost double the losses it incurred in 2021 i.e. $1.55 Billion.

However, the crypto industry may have enjoyed a month of relief in sending off December at the lowest amount of losses.