Web3 projects lost more than $2 billion between January and June due to hacks. In just six months, cybercriminals have managed to lose more money to these schemes than they did in 2021.

Touted as the next major internet revolution, Web3 Appetite for cybercriminals. Marked the start of 2022, Web3 projects lost more than $2 billion between January and June due to hacks and exploits of security vulnerabilities, according to the latest quarterly report by the renowned company CertiK. Its audits in the blockchain sector. In just six months, cybercriminals have already managed to lose more money to these projects than in 2021.

Among the methods used by criminals are scams, especially through flash loans. This decentralized financial system allows borrowers to access very large amounts of cryptocurrency for a very short period of time. If used maliciously, flash loans can be used to manipulate the token’s value on exchanges, buy all governance tokens for a project, or withdraw all funds.

This was especially the case with Beanstalk, the protocol behind the stablecoin bean. Last April, an administrative attack cost $182 million. A total of $308 million was lost in 27 attacks in 2022, compared to $14 million in Q1.

and flash loans Fishing is popular

Another method preferred by cybercriminals is attacks Fishing (Fishing) has increased sharply since the beginning of the year. CertiK found 106 from January to March, and 290 in the last three months. In this case, the Discord messaging platform was the main target of the efforts. Fishing.

On the other hand, method Pull the carpet, an English term that translates into French as “carpet pulling,” has been used in recent months. It refers to a scam where the founders of a project abandon it and abscond with the funds provided by the investors. According to CertiK, this scam technique lost $37.5 million in the second quarter, down 16.7% from the first three months of the year.

However, this decline is partly due to the difficult period experienced by the cryptocurrency and NFT sectors, one of the components of Web3. In the background Decline in value of cryptoassets Investments are about half, and opportunities for scams have become rare recently. However, there is no doubt that crypto-criminals will take note as the sector recovers. CertiK thus expects a 223% increase in lost funds in the entire Web3 sector by 2022.