$1.8 billion in digital assets were lost across 751 security incidents in 2023. While the amount is still huge, it was 51% lower than in 2022, when losses to hacks and other incidents reached $3.7 billion.
The data comes from blockchain security firm CertiK’s annual report titled “Hack3d: The Web3 Security Report 2023.” On Jan. 3, the security company compiled a document highlighting the state of Web3 security in the last year.
Within the report, the company noted that the third quarter of 2023 recorded the most losses at over $686 million. Furthermore, private key compromises continued to be the most costly attack vector. In 2023, over $880 million were lost to 47 incidents where private keys were compromised.
When it comes to blockchains, the Ethereum network recorded the most losses. According to CertiK’s report, Ethereum saw $686 million in losses across 224 incidents. This put the blockchain at an average of $3 million per incident. On the other hand, BNB Chain recorded 387 security incidents. However, the total losses were only $134 million, much lower than Ethereum’s.
In addition, cross-chain interoperability remains a pain point for crypto. The security report highlighted that losses were at almost $800 million in security breaches affecting multiple blockchains.
Related: Crypto phishing scams took almost $300M from 324K victims in 2023: Report
Ronghui Gu, the co-founder of CertiK, told Cointelegraph that, all things considered, 2023 was a “positive development” for blockchain security. Gu explained:
“The growth of bug bounty platforms and other proactive security measures is a good sign. Hopefully, we will see a continued decline in losses throughout 2024.”
Gu also said the 51% decline in losses can be attributed to the broader bear market that saw declining token and treasury valuations. However, Gu believes that if losses stay low during the bull run, it would indicate that the Web3 industry is “learning its security lessons.”
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