According to a new report by Immunefi, Ethereum is the most targeted chain in 2024, accounting for 85% of the value lost in February 2024. The biggest incident to date is an attacker gaining control of the Shido blockchain’s Ethereum betting contract and transferring billions of Shido tokens (SHIDO).
Hacked amount in 2024 increased by 15.4% compared to the same period in 2023
Specifically, in Immunefi’s report, over $200 million worth of cryptocurrency has been lost due to hacks and exploits in 2024 so far (YTD) across 32 individual incidents.
The losses year-to-date have increased by 15.4% compared to January and February 2023, when $173 million of digital assets were stolen.
Notable Incidents
Seneca
Seneca offered a 20% bounty to the exploiter who gained access to at least $6.4 million worth of digital assets after exploiting a vulnerability in the protocol’s smart contract approval mechanism.
On February 28, various blockchain security companies “flagged” exploits on the stablecoin protocol. Companies like CertiK warned users about the exploits, urging them to revoke approvals from an address on the Ethereum and Arbitrum networks. The initial estimate of the losses was $3 million, but it was later discovered that over 1,900 Ether (ETH), worth approximately $6.4 million, was stolen from the exploit.
A few hours after Seneca’s message, the hacker returned approximately 1,537 ETH, worth about $5.3 million, to the wallet address specified by Seneca.
Shido
The Layer-1 blockchain token Shido dropped 94% within 30 minutes after being exploited on an Ethereum-based betting contract.
PeckShield, a blockchain security company, alerted their followers about the decline in a post on day X of February 29. A subsequent post explained that the exploiter transferred the blockchain’s Ethereum betting contract to a different address with a new owner and then upgraded the contract with hidden functions to withdraw the placed bets tokens.
