Hackers Stole $35 Million in Crypto in February

The amount of money stolen in more than 200 hacks over the past month is almost 10 times less than it was a year ago. According to calculations by the cybersecurity firm PeckShield, hackers stole cryptocurrencies worth $35.5 million in February. In 209 hacks, money was stolen, and 141 of them happened on February 11.

What’s Going On?

The report says that money was stolen in 209 hacks, 141 of which took place on February 11. The most money that was stolen from one project was $9.2 million, which was taken from about 25 MyAlgo crypto wallets on the Algorand blockchain.

After the MyAlgo hack, a $9 million attack was made on the crypto protocol of the Platypus platform. The platform then said that the attacker had used a logical mistake in the solvency check mechanism in the collateral contract to get an instant loan. Unknown people were able to take money out of the main pool, which caused the Platypus USD stablecoin to no longer be tied to the US dollar. It fell by 52.2% to $0.47.

Analysts also say that some of the stolen money was sent to the Tornado Cash cryptomixer by the hackers. Representatives of the PeckShield service found 9 addresses where $15.4 million worth of Ethereum and $1.8 million worth of BNB were sent to the anonymization service.

One new way to commit fraud and steal money was with viruses that looked like desktop versions of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot. Researchers say that attackers make websites that look like a desktop version of the ChatGPT chatbot for Windows and Android. These websites are used to spread viruses.

When hackers broke into one project, they stole $9.2 million, which was the most they could get away with. About 25 MyAlgo crypto wallets on the Algorand blockchain were affected. The Platypus crypto protocol hack, which took about $9 million on February 16, is in second place. Some of the funds have already been returned thanks to the work of the Platypus development team and the help of the crypto community. The French police have also arrested the hackers.

The total amount of money stolen, $35.5 million, is almost 10 times less than what was stolen in February 2022, which was $349.9 million. But compared to January of this year, the losses were 4 times bigger than they were in January. Hackers stole $8.8 million worth of cryptocurrency in the first month of 2023.

How to Keep Your Coins Safe from Stealing?

There are many different types of cryptocurrency scams. Some of the most common ways to steal cryptocurrency from users are through fake sites, phishing bitcoin wallets, exchangers, and exchanges with limited features that are used to fill up a personal account without the ability to withdraw. Fraudsters don’t mind using Elon Musk and other well-known people to get people to visit their sites.

A large analytics company called CipherTrace posts news about new cryptocurrency schemes on its blog all the time. “Pump and dump” is also a common scam in the United States. This is when a new token that seems promising is advertised in every way possible and its price goes up quickly because investors want it. Most of the time, these tokens can be used right away, but they are not added to large exchanges. They grow at a normal rate, but then the site shuts down or the scammers sell their assets, making the cryptocurrency worthless.

How to keep your cryptocurrency from getting stolen?

By being able to spot cryptocurrency fraud, users will be able to keep some of their cryptocurrency safe. If the site promises you a 100% return on your investment with no risks, markets itself aggressively through all possible channels, and hides or hosts technical documents that don’t match up, there is a 99% chance that it is a scam. To avoid falling for the trick, all you have to do is find a secure, verified wallet, keep an eye on how stable applications are, invest in blockchain platforms that have already been tested, and take your time. Exchanges that are not trustworthy often take advantage of investors’ haste and lack of knowledge to steal their money or cryptocurrencies.