Theft and hacks in the cryptocurrency world are not something new and surprising. Hackers are paying special attention to fairly new and innovative projects, such as Web3. The fact is that fresh projects are vulnerable and have numerous errors, which are used to steal funds.
As statistics show, in the first half of 2023, the Web3 industry lost about $656 million mostly due to hacking attacks and phishing. According to the Beosin Security Report on Web3, losses from hacking attacks alone amounted to over $471 million, which accounts for nearly 72% of the total losses. Phishing scams accounted for almost 17% of the overall losses, or $108.3 million, while the remaining $75.87 million were attributed to various manipulations.
Perhaps the most high-profile case was the hack of Euler Finance and the theft of $197 million. Cybercriminals from North Korea were accused of this. An attack on Atomic Wallet was also recently reported. Hackers managed to take away about $35 million. However, according to the Web3 report, the total amount of funds lost as a result of the Atomic Wallet hack is actually $67 million.
The report's data also includes at least eight other major attacks, through which hackers made off with about $25 million.
As for comparisons, in the first six months of 2022, hackers stole about $1.9 billion. In 2021, hackers stole less, around $375.5 million. Progress in security and protection is evident.
As for the sectors, the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector is under the main threat. The better part of the money is kept there. However, protection is minimal because of various protocols. In total, 85 decentralized finance projects were targeted by attacks, resulting in the largest losses of about $292.6 million. Contract vulnerability was the most common type of attack during this period, which cost $264.1 million. Arbitrage attacks and compromised key hacks were also common tactics used by criminals.
Meanwhile, the data shows that the majority of fraud cases occurred in the BNB network. The Ethereum blockchain was next in terms of hacking attacks, while there was only one such incident in the Dogecoin network.
As for today's technical outlook for Bitcoin, the asset is likely to go on growing under the current conditions. At present, BTC is trading above the $29,780 level, which maintains the chances of building a bullish market with the prospect of reaching $31,260 and $32,300. The farthest target is $34,300, where investors may lock in profits, thus causing a decline in BTC. In the event of renewed selling pressure and a breakout below $29,780, the focus will be on defending $28,440. A breakout of this range could push the price to $27,390.
Ethereum buyers should still protect the nearest support at $1,890 and break resistance at $1,960. Only after that, the price may move towards $2,050 and $2,127, which would allow the bullish trend to continue and lead to a new surge to the $2,250 area. If sellers resume exerting pressure on ETH, a breakout of $1,890, will lead to a test of $1,815. The lower range is seen at around $1,702.