Cross-chain bridge vulnerability has emerged as the biggest security risk, costing blockchain networks $1.9 billion in stolen assets
The market crash is not the only worry of crypto entities. The year 2022 has so far seen over $3 billion worth of digital assets stolen across 125 incidents of network exploitation by hackers. And, the month of October is the biggest month so far with at least $718 million worth of digital assets illegally drained, even though more than half of the month is still to go, media reports said based on data provided by blockchain intelligence platform Chainalysis on Thursday.
The current month has seen a total of 11 hacks, with four coming on October 12. “After four hacks yesterday, October is now the biggest month in the biggest year ever for hacking activity, with more than half the month still to go. So far this month, $718 million has been stolen from #DeFi protocols across 11 different hacks,” Chainalysis said.
On October 6, the Binance crypto exchange temporarily halted its network after a bug in its cross-chain bridge between BNB Beacon and BNB Smart was exploited and two million BNB tokens equivalent to nearly $600 million was drained. Cross-chain bridges have emerged as the most vulnerable blockchain infrastructure accounting for $1.9 billion worth of stolen digital assets out of a total of $2.9 billion post-Binance exploitation, Chanlysis had informed earlier.
The month has seen 3 bridge exploitation incidents that account for 82% of losses this month and 64% for the year so far. Most of the hacks in 2022 have targeted Defi platforms.