53 Crypto Protocols Were Exploited In October, Over $3 Billion Lost Year-To-Date

October became the worst month for crypto in what could be the worst year for the crypto sector as the prices of almost every crypto coin were stuck in a downtrend and, as per PeckShield, a blockchain security firm, over 53 crypto firms were exploited in the month.

With two months left for the year to end, PeckShield revealed that year-to-date, more than $3 billion has been stolen from crypto protocols, which rightfully belongs to the investors in the space. The blockchain security firm added that the amount has "doubled" from last year's loss.

PeckShield confirmed that over 44 exploits were implemented this month and 53 crypto firms were affected, which means that the difference between the two could be white hat attackers, which was resolved by paying a bounty to the hacker.

Funds worth over $760.2 million were drained from crypto firms in October, but as per PeckShield, close to $100 million was already returned. This possibly also included the $47 million from the $67 million stolen during the Mango Markets exploit.

Similar data was put forth by Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics firm, which stated that by mid-October, more than $700 million was stolen alone by crypto scammers. The analytics firm believes that 2022 will soon surpass 2021, which was the worst year for the crypto space in terms of exploits and hackers.

"The increase in DeFi-related crime is an example of how criminals often exploit new technologies," Kim Grauer, head of research at Chainalysis, told Reuters earlier this year. "When DeFi started to grow this year, we saw large increases in DeFi protocols being used to launder money as well as DeFi protocols being the actual victims of crimes such as hacking," he added.

Some of the notable firms exploited this month include Celo-based decentralized finance (DeFi) lending platform, Moola Market and Binance's BSC Token Hub bridge.