Crypto losses reach $428 million in Q3 2022 globally from hacks and frauds

As per the new report, the world witnessed crypto loss up to $428 million in the third quarter (Q3), down 36% from Q2, from hacks and frauds.

According to an analysis of the crypto losses by bug bounty platform Immunefi, fraud accounts for only 7% of the total losses in Q3 2022, while hacks account for 93 per cent.

"The global Web3 space was valued at $3 trillion in 2021, and with billions locked across different smart contracts, this capital represents an unparalleled and attractive opportunity for blackhat hackers," the report mentioned.

The researchers saw a loss of $399 million to hacks across 30 specific incidents and a loss of $29 million to fraud across nine specific incidents.

"Most of that sum was lost by 2 specific projects, Nomad Bridge, a cross-chain communication standard that enables transfers of tokens and data between chains, and Wintermute, a global crypto market maker," the report said.

DeFi (decentralised finance) continues to be the key target for exploits in Q3 2022 in comparison to CeFi (centralised finance).

DeFi represented 98.8% of the total losses, while CeFi represented 1.2% of the total losses.

The two most targeted chains in Q3 2022 were BNB Chain and Ethereum.

BNB Chain suffered the most individual attacks with 16 incidents, representing 28.6% of the total losses across targeted chains, and Ethereum witnessed 13 incidents, representing 23.2%, respectively.