November: A Damaging Month for Cryptocurrency with Theft Totalling $363 Million

By: Eliza Bennet

Crypto hackers in November pocketed approximately $363 million across several incidents, marking one of the most devastating months of the year for the industry. The major portion of the stolen funds, a whopping $316.4 million, originated from exploit incidents, while flash loans caused $45.5 million in damage, and various exit scams led to a loss of $1.1 million.

Projects associated with crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun witnessed around $236 million illicitly transferred, representing nearly 70% of the total funds stolen during the month. Major platforms successfully compromised included Poloniex, HTX, and Heco Bridge. In total, the cumulative loss from crypto exploits in 2023 has reached an astounding $1.7 billion.

Other significant incidents in November involved the decentralized exchange KyberSwap suffering a $45 million attack and Taipei-based trading firm Kronos Research losing $26 million due to unauthorized API key access. One victim lost $27 million worth of Tether's USDT to a phishing attack.

As crypto thievery, scams and exploits continue to cause serious damage, it underscores the need for effective security measures and perhaps tighter regulation within the industry.