Crypto Investors Lost Over $700 Million To Hackers In October: 'It's The Biggest Month'

The year 2022 is no doubt one of the worst years for the crypto industry with investors losing nearly $3 billion worth of cryptocurrency to hackers and October has seen more such cases. According to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, more than $700 million have been stolen this month alone by crypto scammers.

In a Twitter thread, Chainalysis said October has already become the "biggest month" ever for hacking activities.

"So far this month, $718 million has been stolen from #DeFi protocols across 11 different hacks," confirmed the analytics firm.

Chainalysis also pointed out that at this rate, the year will pretty soon surpass 2021 in terms of number of hacks and money stolen from the crypto space. The firm confirmed that around 125 hacks have been reported so far this year and the hackers have made away with around $3 billion.

Chainalysis noticed a change in trend when it comes to hacking activities these days. Back in 2019, hackers mostly targeted centralized exchanges like Binance, Coinbase and FTX. However, now they are focusing on decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and one such example is the latest attack on Mango Markets, a decentralized exchange on the Solana blockchain.

Hackers made away with more than $100 million from Mango Markets through an oracle price manipulation, the exchange confirmed Wednesday.

"Cross-chain bridges remain a major target for hackers, with 3 bridges breached this month and nearly $600 million stolen, accounting for 82% of losses this month and 64% of losses all year," Chainalysis explained.

One such recent activity on cross-chain bridges includes the attack on BSC Token Hub, the bridge between Binance's BNB Beacon Chain (BEP2) and BNB Chain (BEP20 or BSC), wherein hackers made away with more than $100 million.