Immunefi Crypto Losses Report 2021
The team at Immunefi, the leading bug bounty and security services platform for crypto, has assessed the volume of crypto funds lost by the community due to hacks and scams in 2021.
Overview
2021 was a year of explosive growth in the cryptocurrency space. The global cryptocurrency market size was valued at $3 trillion in 2021. Along with this, the number of hacks has grown many times: blockchain hackers stole $3.8 billion in 122 attacks in 2020. Therefore, more than ever, better security is needed in this area. Immunefi is already protecting projects worth about $100 billion. Immunefi has protected $20 billion from hacks and paid more than $10 million in compensation to whitehat hackers in 2021.
We have reviewed all instances where blackhat hackers have exploited various crypto protocols, as well as cases of alleged fraudulent protocols and founders who have performed a rug pull in 2021. We have located 121 such instances and have assigned them into one of these categories: either a hack or an alleged fraud.
In total, the crypto and DeFi ecosystem has witnessed a staggering loss of $8,100,159,589 in 2021. Most of that was lost in only a few events of alleged fraud, namely with Africrypt and Thodex which together have captured over $5,500,000,000 in users' funds.
Only $2,334,863,067 were lost through hacks, located vulnerabilities, and errors in the protocols. Of that amount, $81,575,125 were lost in Q1 2021, $524,701,463 were lost in Q2, $994,489,686 in Q3 and $735,243,793 in Q4. And with Immunefi, over $20 billion was prevented from being lost.
In comparison, nearly $4.38 billion were stolen in 123 attacks throughout 2020 on the Web3 market, resulting in a 85% YoY increase.
The Top 10 Hacks in 2021
Q1 2021
| Project | Loss |
|---|---|
| Alpha Finance, Cream Finance | $37,500,000 |
| Furucombo | $14,000,000 |
| YFI | $11,000,000 |
| TSD | $7,095,340 |
| Roll | $5,558,292 |
| DODO | $3,000,000 |
| lBT.Finance | $1,500,000 |
| Armor | $850,000 |
| SeascapeNetwork | $500,000 |
| Multi Financial | $255,000 |
Q2 2021
| Project | Loss |
|---|---|
| Venus | $200,000,000 |
| EasyFi | $80,000,000 |
| Uranium Finance | $50,000,000 |
| PancakeBunny | $45,000,000 |
| Spartan Protocol | $30,000,000 |
| xToken | $25,000,000 |
| Rari Capital | $14,000,000 |
| flash.sx | $11,742,000 |
| bEarn Fi | $11,000,000 |
| Value DeFi | $10,000,000 |
Q3 2021
| Project | Loss |
|---|---|
| Poly Network* | $613,062,100 |
| Liquid | $91,350,000 |
| Compound | $80,000,000 |
| Sentinel | $40,000,000 |
| Vee.Finance | $35,000,000 |
| Bilaxy | $21,709,378 |
| Popsicle Finance | $20,000,000 |
| Punk Protocol | $8,900,000 |
| Haven Protocol | $8,186,549 |
| Chainswap | $8,000,000 |
* the funds have been returned
Q4 2021
| Project | Loss |
|---|---|
| BitMart | $200,000,000 |
| BXH | $139,195,315 |
| Cream Finance | $130,000,000 |
| BadgerDAO | $120,000,000 |
| bZx | $55,040,167 |
| MonoX | $31,000,000 |
| Compound | $22,000,000 |
| Indexed Finance | $16,000,000 |
| Synapse Protocol | $8,000,000 |
| PIZZA | $5,000,000 |
Alleged Fraud Events in 2021
The biggest alleged fraud events were Africrypt with a $3,500,000,000 loss, Thodex – $2,000,000,000 loss, Finiko – $100,000,000 loss, Bondly Finance – $59,398,385 loss.
Upd: the report was updated on May 24, 2022 to specify certain figures and classification
Download the full report here.
For questions about this study or Immunefi itself, reach out at press@immunefi.com
About Immunefi
Immunefi is the leading security platform for crypto, protecting more than $180 billion in user funds, and securing protocols across the full development lifecycle, from pre-deployment through production.
