Crypto Thefts Skyrocket 462% in September to $766 Million

Cryptocurrency thefts have skyrocketed in September, with two major incidents driving losses to unprecedented levels. Security firm PeckShieldAlert reports that the industry suffered 55 significant hacks, totaling $766.49 million in losses. This marks a staggering 462% increase from August's $136.3 million, highlighting the growing threat of cybercrime in the crypto space.

The Bitget hack, amounting to around $387 million, and the Liquid Network theft of approximately $320 million (with $285 million later recovered) now rank among the largest crypto thefts of the year. Other notable incidents include an MEV bot exploit worth $7.81 million that was fully recovered, and the Duelbits hack, which resulted in $7 million in losses.

The top 10 list of thefts also features Payment Processor V2 at $6.6 million (with $3.4 million recovered), DCENT Wallet at $6.57 million, Astroport at $4.9 million, Drop at $4.4 million, NostraFinance at $3.5 million, and Nomic nBTC Bridge at $3.15 million. Earlier in the month, Near (NEAR) Intents was hacked for $3.865 million after irregular outflows from its Binance Smart Chain (BSC) hot wallet. The stolen funds were moved to KuCoin and bridged to BTC, with interactions traced to an address linked to the NorthKorea LazarusGroup.

These incidents underscore the urgent need for improved security measures in the cryptocurrency industry as hackers continue to exploit vulnerabilities in exchanges and networks.