In May, during rug pulls, malicious actors snatched $45 million, while the loss from DeFi hacks was above $20 million.
In an unexpected shift in the cryptocurrency landscape in May, "rug pulls" have resulted in higher losses than those from decentralized finance (DeFi) projects.
The above-mentioned startling revelation came from Beosin, a blockchain security firm, in a report published on June 1st.
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Beosin's report reveals that the losses due to scams and rug pulls, where founders abruptly vanish with the investors' funds, reached a staggering $45 million from six incidents in May alone.
Contrarily, the total amount siphoned off through ten attacks on DeFi protocols was $19.7 million, an almost 80% decline from April. This indicates a two-month trend of decreasing losses from DeFi exploits.
The dubious honor of the largest rug pull in May goes to the cryptocurrency project Fintoch, alleged of swindling $32 million on May 24th. Meanwhile, the most significant DeFi platform breach was Jimbos protocol, where attackers made away with $7.5 million.
Based on the Beosin report, more and more hackers target the general public.
Hackers and scammers are gradually shifting the target of their attacks from various project parties to ordinary users.
The firm further recommended that crypto users elevate their awareness of potential scams, investigate thoroughly before investing in any project, and educate themselves on how to protect their cryptocurrency holdings.
Furthermore, Beosin issued a warning against the usage of shared or public charging devices for smartphones, as these could be modified to insert malicious software that might jeopardize private keys.
Overall, the data show a substantial decrease in crypto-related hacks during the first quarter of 2023, with the average hack value dropping from $30 million in 2022 to $10.5 million in 2023.
The data suggest that crypto investors must remain a top priority for every crypto user to ward off any potential resurgence of hacking attempts.
