According to the data from Chainalysis, 11 different attacks on decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols occurred in October alone, as hackers managed to get away with the record $718 million. The company’s analysts expect that at this rate 2022 will surpass 2021 as the “biggest year for hacking on record.” Last year, attackers siphoned over $3 billion across 125 hacks, but 2022 is likely to eclipse these already horrifying figures.
Out of all October attacks, four happened on the same day of October 11, with total losses approaching $122 million. On that day, hackers drained $200,000 using a vulnerability in Rabby Swap smart contract, $1.89 million from QANPlatform's Ethereum bridge, $2 million from TempleDAO, and $118 million from Mango Markets, a Solana-native decentralized derivatives exchange.
The company also noticed that the main targets for blockchain criminals have shifted from centralized exchanges in 2019 to DeFi protocols and cross-chain bridges in 2021-2022. Three bridge exploits accounted for 82% of October losses, with the recent $100 million hack of Binance's BNB cross-chain bridge being the largest among them.
