Crypto hackers and scammers stole over $163 million from the crypto space in August across 16 separate attacks — with a social engineering attack against a Bitcoiner accounting for the lion’s share of losses.
Blockchain security firm PeckShield said in an X post on Monday that August’s losses are a 15% increase compared to July, which only recorded $142 million, though it’s down 47% year on year.
Cybersecurity experts told Coinelegraph the increase in August was driven by hackers shifting their efforts to high-value targets and the rise in crypto prices.
Crypto hackers concentrate on high-value targets
Speaking to Cointelegraph, PeckShield said there was a strategic shift by hackers last month, as they are now concentrating on centralized exchanges and other high-value individual targets.
Two incidents in particular inflated the total for August. A Bitcoiner who was the victim of a social engineering attack lost 783 Bitcoin (BTC), worth $91 million at the time, in a single transaction after bad actors masqueraded as a crypto exchange and hardware wallet support.
The other was the Turkish crypto exchange Btcturk, which saw nearly $50 million in crypto stolen after an attacker accessed its hot wallets. This was also the second major security breach in the past year.
However, PeckShield said the number of hacks has been trending downward, with 16 recorded in August, compared to 17 in July and 20 in June.
“Looking at the broader picture over the past 8 months, the total number of hacks has shown a decreasing trend. This is positive news and suggests improvements in overall ecosystem security.”
Crypto price booms are playing a factor too
Hank Huang, CEO of Kronos Research, told Cointelegraph that crypto exploits often rise alongside crypto prices, creating high-value rewards for prime targets.
Both Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) experienced new all-time highs in August. Bitcoin crossed over $124,000 on Aug. 14, while Ether stormed past $4,946 on Aug. 24.
“August’s surge highlights how attackers are zeroing in on centralized wallets using sophisticated phishing and social engineering to expose operational weaknesses,” Huang added.
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Total losses were trending downward, with $176 million lost to hacks in June, a 54.2% decrease from May when scammers made off with $385 million, and $142 million lost in July.
However, Huang speculates that losses could keep rising for the rest of the year, “driven not just by soaring crypto prices but even more by the slow and steady lag in security technology improvements to prevent these attacks.”
New tech could cushion the blow to crypto
Huang also said there could be new technology and better security measures on the horizon, which would likely help curb losses in the long term.
“As emerging technology advances, AI-driven improvements and stronger security models should help cushion the impact in the future,” he said.
Meanwhile, PeckShield said high value targets, such as corporations and individuals with large crypto holdings should ensure strong security measures are in place.
“We recommend that high-value targets—both corporations and individuals—should be increasingly vigilant and proactively implement robust security measures.”
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