According to Immunefi, hacks were a "predominant cause" of all losses recorded in the first quarter of 2023.
A recent report by blockchain security firm Immunefi revealed that BNB Chain accounted for a whopping 73.3% of rug pull scams in the cryptocurrency space during Q1 2023.
The "Crypto Losses in Q1 2023" report examined various crypto hacks and scams that occurred during the first quarter of the year.
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The report identified Ethereum and BNB Chain as the primary targets for hacks and scams, with 68.8% of the total losses coming from these blockchains.
In particular, Immunefi noted that malicious actors bagged over 40% of all stolen funds from the BNB Chain. The majority of funds were obtained through rug pulls.
Immunefi Tech Lead Adrian Hetman offered an explanation for the high number of rug pulls on the BNB Chain:
BNB Chain still has a serious issue with developers using forked code. Its community lacks a security-first approach and attracts many users looking for a quick way to earn money. That’s why we continue to see the biggest number of exploits and rug pulls in this ecosystem.
Despite the prominence of rug pulls on BNB Chain, Immunefi's report emphasized that compared to hacks and exploits, rug pulls and other frauds were a relatively minor problem in the crypto community.
In the report, Immunefi named hacks as the "predominant cause" of all losses in Q1 2023. It is worth noting that all frauds combined accounted for only 4.3% of the total losses.
Q1 2023 saw numerous high-profile hacks and exploits, with millions of dollars drained from decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.
In the first quarter of 2023, the DeFi lending app BonqDAO suffered an oracle hack losing $120 million in crypto. A few weeks later, on February 17th, decentralized exchange aggregator Dexible was hacked, resulting in over $2 million in losses. The largest DeFi attack of the quarter took place on March 13th, with Euler Finance losing more than $195 million in crypto.