Crypto Sees 27.78% Drop in Investor Losses in 2023, $675M Recovered

A prominent cybersecurity firm, PeckShield, recently released an infographic detailing the staggering level of cyber-attacks impacting the cryptocurrency sector throughout 2023. 

The findings disclosed both the grim reality of investor losses amounting to $2.6 billion and a silver lining of nearly $675 million recovered from over 600 hacking incidents. The $674 million recovered represents 25% of the stolen crypto.

PeckShield's data revealed a notable 27.78% decrease in losses compared to 2022, with investors facing a combined hit of over $1.5 billion from hacks and an additional $1.1 billion from various scam schemes. 

Further, Illicit addresses received over $24 billion worth of crypto, representing a decrease from the estimated $39.6 billion in 2022, as per Chainalysis.

Despite the decline, decentralized finance (DeFi) maintained its status as the primary target, accounting for 67% of the total stolen value.

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Recovery Efforts and Collaborations

This substantial increase from the estimated $133 million recovered in 2022 was attributed to active negotiations with hackers, the growing prominence of bug bounty programs, and collaborative efforts with centralized exchanges, Tether, and law enforcement agencies to freeze illicit funds.

While Bitcoin previously dominated illicit transactions from 2018 to 2021, the rise of stablecoins became evident in 2022 and 2023. Notable incidents like the Mixin Network hack, with a staggering $200 million in losses, brought more focus on stablecoins, followed closely by Euler Labs and Poloniex.