Hackers have become more sophisticated and continue to make billions of dollars from cryptocurrency exploits.

The good news? Nothing, 2024 has officially surpassed last year's total money stolen, with months of hacks accumulating in an already record-breaking year.

By the third quarter of 2024, blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs reported that more than $2.2 billion had been stolen in cryptocurrency hacks — exceeding the $1.8 billion lost in all of 2023.

Now, as the year comes to a close, the total continues to rise. The analysis reveals that the thefts were not limited to the experimental world of decentralized finance, or DeFi; Centralized cryptocurrency exchanges have also been prime targets.

Here are the biggest cryptocurrency thefts of 2024.

DMM Bitcoin worth $308 million

Japanese cryptocurrency exchange DMM Bitcoin lost More than 4,500 bitcoins — worth $308 million at the time — were stolen by hackers in May.

It's unclear how the hackers were able to steal from the exchange, but TRM Labs said stolen private keys were a plausible explanation.

The company still is closing The clients' accounts were transferred to another exchange, SBI VC Trade, which took over their assets.

PlayDapp valued at $290 million

Pirates Targeted Cryptocurrency gaming platform PlayDapp twice in February by exploiting a private key vulnerability. They escaped with $290 million in PLA tokens through the two incidents.

The attackers also ignored a $1 million white hat bounty to return the stolen funds. To this day, the money is still missing.

WazirX valued at $235 million

Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX was also Targeted In June, hackers made off with nearly $235 million.

WazirX suspended all withdrawals, leaving users unable to access their funds after the hack. Elliptic said the attack was linked to North Korea.

The stock exchange's parent company, Zettai Pte Ltd, obtained a four-month moratorium from the Singapore High Court in August in a bid to bring its finances in order.

Things took a strange turn in October when the co-founder of rival CoinSwitch exchange WazirX was accused of diverting $75 million worth of user funds to major trading platforms Bybit and KuCoin in the wake of the attack.

At WazirX Since he said It is in the process of “rebalancing the tokens,” and customers will soon be informed of the next steps to repay creditors.

Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen is worth $112.5 million

Pirates Targeted Ripple co-founder and CEO Chris Larsen XRP Stash on January 30th. The cryptocurrency entrepreneur wrote on X's website that there had been "unauthorized access to a few of my personal XRP accounts," but reassured people that Ripple itself was not targeted.

However, it was a massive attack, and blockchain investigator ZachXBT said the hackers obtained around 213 million XRP – $112.5 million at the time – before laundering it through exchanges. Efforts to recover the stolen assets were unsuccessful.

Orbit series worth $80 million

The year started with a major DeFi hack, such as hackers Exhausted More than $80 million from the Orbit Chain bridge project on January 1. Criminals stole Ethereum and the stablecoin DAI, then went silent.

Months later, millions of dollars in stolen cryptocurrencies were stolen Move Tornado Cash Mixer Coin. Other than a January statement apologizing for the exploit, the team behind the project has since provided few updates on what happened — or how to recover the stolen funds.

BtcTurk worth $54 million

On June 22, Pirates Targeted Turkish cryptocurrency exchange BtCTurk - which caters to the country's emerging market. Most of the money was in the form of... Avalanche (AVAX), the twelfth largest digital asset by market cap.

The exchange reassured users that most of the funds – kept in cold storage – were safe. Meanwhile, a day after the hack, Binance CEO Richard Teng He said His exchange froze $5.3 million in stolen funds to support BtcTurk's efforts.

Radiant Capital $50 million

In October, Pirates He hits DeFi project Radiant Capital in “one of the most sophisticated hacks ever recorded in DeFi,” taking $50 million in tokens at the time.

The hack occurred after a Radiant developer received a Telegram message from what appears to be a former contractor for the protocol He said. The message contained a PDF file, which was then used to deliver the malware and then control several private keys, allowing hackers to steal USDT, US dollarsand ARB Symbols.

Radiant Capital, which allows users to earn interest and borrow cryptocurrencies, has since said North Korean hackers were behind the attack.

US government $20 million

Even hackers Targeted Federal Reserve this year with over $20 million in stablecoins and Ethereum She disappeared in October from a government wallet containing money seized from criminals.

The cryptocurrency in question has been linked to a previous hack of the Bitfinex exchange in 2016. The hackers sent the coins and tokens to a new address, prompting pseudonymous blockchain investigator ZachXBT to say it was likely a theft.

Then, the next day, nearly $19.3 million of the hacked funds were returned to the wallet, according to data compiled by Arkham Intelligence. It's still unclear what happened to the rest of the stolen cryptocurrencies, or why the hackers returned them in the first place.

Modified by Sebastian Sinclair