Crypto Exploit Reduced to $62M in December 2022 – CertiK

Crypto scammers and other bad actors may have taken time off during the holidays as December saw the least monthly figure in terms of hacks. 

According to the leading security-focused ranking platform CertiK, it was confirmed that the value of crypto exploits and scams was just around $62.2 million. Markedly, the total number of major exploits was twenty-three throughout the past month.

“Combining all the incidents in December we’ve confirmed ~$62.2M lost to exploits, hacks and scams. The lowest monthly figure this year. Exit scams were ~$15.5M. Flashloans were ~$7.6M,” CertiK tweeted adding that “23 major attacks were recorded in December totalling a loss of ~$61.3 Million. As always, make sure a project has an audit & KYC before investing!”

Exit and Flash Loan Scams Leads in December 

These twenty-three significant scams made up 98.5% of all the exploits in December. Out of all of the listed major crypto scams, exit scams were observed as the most common strategy used to siphon funds with $15.5 million attributed to this style of theft. While $7.6 million was credited to flash loans-related scams. The Helio Protocol scam which led to the loss of $15 million on the 2nd of December was the largest in the month.

Noteworthy, the Helio protocol is responsible for the management of the stablecoin HAY (HAY). The bad actor that perpetrated the crime made away with millions worth of the stablecoin by leveraging a price discrepancy in the Ankr Reward Bearing Staked BNB (aBNBc). This was different from the 20 trillion aBNBc exploit which happened on the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform before that time.

The Helio scammer borrowed 16 million HAY after depositing aBNBc tokens. His action meant that the loan was largely undercollateralized, hence the huge loss on the protocol and a de-pegging of the stablecoin. 

Defrost Finance’s v1 and v2 protocols scam which happened a few days before Christmas was the second-largest attack in December. Blockchain security company PeckShield claimed that it could have been a result of community intel which led to the loss of more than $12 million. It was a flash loan attack where the perpetrator added a fake collateral token and a fraudulent price oracle which pushed for the liquidation of the protocol.  

Ultimately, the December figure was a far cry from the previous months, It was an 89.5% decrease from that of November.