August crypto hacks hit 50 incidents, cases up 67 percent while losses halved

[Digital Today reporter Jinju Hong (홍진주)] Major hacking incidents in the crypto industry in August rose sharply from the previous month. The number of hacks surged, but overall losses fell as the scale of large incidents declined.

Blockchain media outlet U.Today reported on Sept. 1 local time that PeckShieldAlert data tallied 50 major crypto hacking incidents in August. That was about 67 percent more than 30 in July.

The amount of assets stolen through hacking was tallied at $136.3 million. That was down 49.5 percent from about $270 million in July. The frequency of hacks and the scale of losses moved in opposite directions.

A large single incident had a big impact on total losses in August. The biggest loss was at Tectonic Finance, where about $74 million was stolen. That was more than half of the total stolen in August.

PeckShield classified the Tectonic Finance incident as the fourth-largest crypto theft so far this year. It was included among major large-scale hacking cases this year, following earlier incidents involving Drift, KelpDAO·LayerZero and exploitation of Coldcard wallets.

Most of the funds stolen in the Tectonic Finance attack appeared to have been difficult for the attacker to move outside. A large portion remained within the ecosystem, and funds moved to external chains before Kronos halted the chain totalled only about $6 million. The attacker later began laundering accessible funds, and some assets were tallied as having been converted into bitcoin.