This year, 47 hacking incidents have occurred at global virtual asset (coin) exchanges, the most on record. The losses reached $770 million (about 1.145 trillion won).
According to DefiLlama, a decentralized finance (DeFi) data platform, as of mid-April this year there were 47 hacking incidents at virtual asset exchanges. These are successful hacks; actual attempts number in the millions. About 60% of hacking attacks on virtual asset exchanges are known to be carried out by North Korean hackers.
By year for January–April, hacking incidents were ▲2024: 24 ▲2023: 29 ▲2022: 21 ▲2021: 23. That means this year's virtual asset exchange hacks were about 1.5 times higher than an average year.
Cumulative hacking losses since 2016 total $16.4 billion (about 24.385 trillion won). The year with the largest losses was 2020 at $3,683.75 million (5.477 trillion won), followed by 2022 at $3,338.12 million (4.9635 trillion won) and 2021 at $2,357 million (3.505 trillion won).
They then declined to $1,511 million (2.247 trillion won) in 2023 and $1,270 million (1.8885 trillion won) in 2024. But last year, losses rose again to $2,560 million (3.8055 trillion won).
By mid-April this year, losses had reached $770 million. That accounts for 30% of last year's losses. DefiLlama said there is a growing likelihood that this year will surpass last year's virtual asset hacking losses.