2022 Biggest Year Ever For Crypto Hacking

2022 was the biggest year ever for crypto hacking, with $3.8 billion stolen from cryptocurrency businesses. DeFi protocols by far the biggest victims of cryptocurrency hacksIn last year’s Crypto Crime Report, we wrote about how decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols in 2021 became the primary target of crypto hackers. DeFi protocols should build out automated processes to pause their protocols and halt transactions if suspicious activity is detected. Besides DeFi protocols, North Korea-linked hackers also tend to send large sums to mixers, which have typically been the cornerstone of their money laundering process. During December 2022 and January 2023, North Korea-linked hackers have sent a total of 1,429.6 Bitcoin worth approximately $24.2 million to the mixer.