Crypto Hack : Ethereum Hit Hardest by Phishing in 2024, with $152 Million in Losses

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The Web3 dealt with an unrelenting number of phishing attacks in 2024 before it reached about $494 million in losses. According to Scam Sniffer’s 2024 phishing report, the figure has risen by 67% from the previous year and wallet drainer malware and the loops it opens to users is becoming more complex. 

Nonetheless, the rate of victims has increased by only 3.7 % but the cost per attack has grown tremendously. The largest single loss for the year, a record of $ 55.48 million, clearly pointed out that this was not a joke but a threat that carries huge risks.

Ethereum took the most attacks, with 25 significant cases involving $152 million of losses. Other blockchains that were attacked include Arbitrum, Blast, Base, and BNB Chain though none of them was exploited to the extent that Ethereum was.

The timeline of attacks

The highest losses were lost in the first quarter, $187.2 million with 175,000 victims. However, march was the worst month with $75.2 million stolen partly because of high on-chain activity occasioned by high bitcoin price. 

Phishing attacks reached their highest levels in the second and third quarters of the year, as in August the losses amounted to $ 55.48 million, and in September, $ 32.51 million. These two months also contributed more than half of the one-year large-scale losses. 

In the last quarter, the losses were lowered to $51 million mainly due to the enhancement of security features and increasing awareness among users and projects.

Evolving tactics of attackers

The wallet drainer strategies, in particular, changed a great deal in 2024. This also resulted in large nets like Pink disappearing in the second quarter of the year, enabling Inferno to take over 45% market share come year-end. 

Attackers also learned new tricks to work around defences; using wallet normalization processes and exploiting other full access signature permissions. It was often seen that phishing signatures like ‘Permit’ and ‘setOwner’ were used to perform other concentrated cyber thefts, the largest of which caused the loss of $55 Million USD in DAI.

Some rays of hope among lots of phishing

Even though 2024 has proven to be a difficult year, there is an opportunity for enhanced security disposition and technology, so there is an expectation for more secure days ahead. It will be a holy grail for developers, security analysts, and users to collectively transition the trick and safeguard decentralized finance.