Certik Reports $347.3M Lost to Hacks, Exit Scams, and Flash Loans in May, Bitcoin Hack Accounts for 88% of the Total

Web3 security firm Certik just provided an update of its data covering all the hacking incidents, exit scams, and flash loans that occurred in May.

Web3 security firm Certik has provided an update of its data covering all the hacking incidents, exit scams, and flash loans that occurred in May.

Based on its report, these illicit activities resulted in the loss of $347.3 million worth of cryptocurrencies last month.

Certik reported a loss of $324.7 million in exploits during the period. The DMM Bitcoin hack accounted for the majority of the funds lost, followed by Gala Games.

According to DMM Bitcoin’s blog post, 4,502.9 BTC “leaked” out from its coffers on May 31st. The digital assets amounted to 48 billion yen or around $304.7 million at the time of the loss.

Meta sleuth Blocksec’s probe revealed that the stolen funds from the Japanese exchange were funneled to 10 wallet addresses. Each of the nine wallets received 500 BTC with the remainder kept on the last one.

DMM Bitcoin refrained from providing additional information as the investigation was ongoing. However, it assured its customers that their BTC deposits remain guaranteed.

Gala Games also fell victim to exploits in May. Around two weeks ago, a hacker utilized a vulnerability in the popular Web3 gaming platform’s smart contract to mint five billion tokens worth $200 million.

The company eventually recovered most of the funds, mainly thanks to the cooperation of Binance and law enforcement authorities. By far, the combined efforts reduced its loss to $21.6 million.

Certik’s data reflected $20.7 million squandered in flash loans in the same month. Sonne Finance emerged as the key contributor to the figures after it lost $20 million in flash loans in mid-May.

The company’s post-mortem investigation disclosed that the hacker carried out a “donation attack” while Sonne was undergoing a protocol transition. The shift provided the perpetrator with a window to manipulate more than a million units of Velo, Ether, and USDC within Sonne’s ecosystem. The hacker later converted the funds into Bitcoin and Ethereum to be siphoned into new wallets.

Meanwhile, TLN Protocol trailed Sonne in Certik’s records due to its recent loss of $746,000 from flash loans.

Rug pulls are still prevalent as scammers continue to prey on the psychological and emotional vulnerabilities of unsuspecting victims. Certik logged around $1.8 million of losses in this sector.