Crypto market loss balloons 52% to $670 million in Q2 globally as hacking, scams rise

New Delhi: The global cryptocurrency market lost at least $670 million in the April-June quarter (Q2), and 97 percent of the losses were due to hacks and scams, a report said on Thursday. The crypto losses in the second quarter were up 52 percent from $440 million in the same period last year. "The majority of these funds were lost by four specific projects, Beanstalk known as a decentralized stablecoin protocol, the Harmony Horizon Bridge, Mirror Protocol, and Fei Protocol," according to data from Immunefi, Web3's leading bug bounty platform.

"In Q2 2022, most of the losses, 96.92 percent happened as a result of hacks. It is also notable that blackhat hackers are now primarily targeting and exploiting DeFi (Decentralised Finance), 49 out of 50 instances involved DeFi protocols," the report noted. (Also Read: SBI freezes customers' accounts for not updating KYC details! Check how to complete your KYC now )

The teams at Immunefi protect over $100 billion in users' funds. "We have reviewed all instances where blackhat hackers have exploited various crypto protocols, as well as cases of alleged fraudulent protocols and founders who have performed a rug pull in Q2 2022," said the company. (Also Read: Gold price today, July 8: Gold prices go down by Rs 750, Check gold rate in Delhi, Patna, Lucknow, Kolkata, Kanpur, Kerala and other cities)

They located 50 such instances, including both successful and semi-successful hacking attempts, as well as fraud events, in Q2. The most common type of crypto fraud is investment scams and since 2021, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has received complaints of losses totaling $575 million due to this kind of fraud.

People lost crypto worth over $185 million in the US via romance scams in the first quarter this year, as fraudsters use new means to rob their victims, with romance scams featuring prominently. Nearly 46,000 Americans reported losing over $1 billion in crypto to scams since early 2021, according to a recent FTC report.