Losses from crypto hacks and scams surged in 2024, according to the blockchain security firm PeckShield.

The firm says the total value loss in the crypto sector last year exceeded $3.01 billion, a 15% increase from the 2023 total.

That number includes $2.15 billion stolen in hacks and $834.5 million purloined via scams. PeckShield also notes that $488.5 million worth of looted crypto was recovered.

Despite the surge in crypto losses last year, 2024 still wasn’t as prolific as 2022, which clocked $3.6 billion worth of value loss.

Last year’s largest heist happened in May when North Korean hackers stole more than $300 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) from the Japanese crypto exchange DMM.

American and Japanese government investigators say the breach began in March when a hacker posed as a recruiter and sent a malicious GitHub link to an employee of Ginco, a DMM partner company. After the employee copied the link to their personal account, a North Korean group known as “TraderTraitor” gained system access and later impersonated the worker to infiltrate DMM’s communications.

The hackers then intercepted and modified a legitimate transaction request from DMM, authorities said.

In December, the blockchain security firm Chainalysis noted that North Korean hackers stole more crypto in 2024 than any prior year, looting $1.34 billion worth of digital assets across 47 incidents.

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Author: Conor Devitt