Crypto Security Improves: 51% Drop in Losses in 2023, CertiK Report

In 2023, CertiK's report, as detailed by CryptoPotato, revealed a substantial decrease in cryptocurrency security incidents, with total losses amounting to $1.84 billion across 751 events, marking a notable 51% decline from 2022. On average, each incident resulted in losses of approximately $2.45 million, with the top ten incidents contributing a significant $1.11 billion to the overall total. The median loss per incident was around $101,132, with November recording the highest losses at $363,367,327 from 45 incidents and Q3 witnessing dominant losses of $686,558,472 stemming from 183 hacks, scams, and exploits. Private key compromises were a major concern, accounting for nearly 50% of the total losses, amounting to $880 million, despite representing only 6.3% of the year's security incidents. Notably, the compromise of Multichain in July, revealing vulnerabilities in its CEO-controlled multi-party computation servers and private keys, resulted in a $125 million loss, rendering $1.5 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL) on the Multichain bridge inaccessible to users. CertiK recommended various private key management practices to enhance security and highlighted Ethereum's leadership in losses, totaling $686 million across 224 incidents, while BNB Chain reported lower losses at $134 million despite encountering 387 security incidents. Cross-chain interoperability challenges continued to plague the crypto industry, resulting in losses of $799 million across multiple blockchains.