The Crypto Industry Lost $52 Million to Hackers in March

• Crypto cyberattacks surged to $52 million in March, a 96% increase from February.
• PeckShield noticed a new trend involving ripple effects that trail initial cyberattacks.
• Recovery rate remains low despite increasing losses from cryptocurrency exploits.

Cyberattacks in the crypto space surged significantly in March, with hackers stealing $52 million across 20 incidents. The figure marks a 96% increase from February’s $26.5 million, signaling renewed activity from attackers after a temporary slowdown.

Crypto Hack Volume Surge 96% in March

According to PeckShield, hackers stole $52 million in 20 major hacks in March, a 96% increase from February’s total of $26.5 million. The drop in February is sandwiched between two relatively high-incident months, considering hackers stole $86 million from crypto projects last January.

Meanwhile, the ResolvLabs decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol was the top victim of crypto hackers in March after suffering an AWS KMS breach that enabled an 80 million USR “infinite mint,” equivalent to approximately $25 million, to be drained from the platform. 

The exploit triggered a ripple effect across MorphoBlue, Euler, and Fluid, resulting in bad debts on these platforms.

Other notable losses in March linked to cyberattacks in the crypto space include a sophisticated on-chain/off-chain combo exploit on Venus, which affected its THE tokens, resulting in a $2.18 million loss, and a $24 million exploit on Sillytuna in both physical and on-chain attacks. Meanwhile, a Kraken whale lost $18 million after being targeted in a social engineering attack.

A Dangerous “Shadow Contagion” Trend

Despite the notable surge in cyberattacks, PeckShield added that the real impact goes beyond the volume or number of incidents. The blockchain security firm identified a pattern experts refer to as “shadow contagion.” It occurs when damage spreads quietly across connected DeFi platforms. 

In the new trend, one exploit can create a ripple effect, causing bad debt, liquidity stress, and unexpected losses in other protocols, even when they weren’t directly hacked, as seen in the ResolvLabs incident.

In the meantime, it is worth noting that the crypto platform attacks and exploits reported by PeckShield coincide with a surge in US-Iran war-related scams. In the past month, many bad actors have used the X social media platform to market fake tokens with war-related themes. These incidents suggest an evolving pattern in the cryptocurrency security sector, with attacks shifting from a predominantly technical endeavor to having significant human involvement.

A Certik report suggests a low recovery rate in crypto hack incidents. While the platform valued March losses at approximately $59.5 million, it reported that only a small portion of approximately $21,900 was recovered.

Related: Resolv Stablecoin Crashes After $25M Exploit Mints 80M Fake Tokens