DeFi is said to be easily hacked, with $3 billion hacked in DeFi this year, while bad debts in CeFi have exceeded $18 billion.
In the first half of 2022, "DeFi hacked" was briefly one of the main reasons for the market downturn. However, after the collapse of Terra, a series of CeFi chain explosion events directly led the market to plummet to the bottom, and compared the amounts affected by DeFi and CeFi, it was like comparing a drop in the ocean. In fact, just the bad debt of Three Arrows Capital alone is enough to rival the total amount of DeFi hacks.
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How Many DeFi Hacks Happened This Year?
According to Chainalysis, as of mid-October this year, there have been at least 125 hacking incidents in 2021, with losses exceeding $3 billion, far surpassing the average losses from 2021.
Some key data points include:
- 90% from DeFi protocols
- 64% from cross-chain bridge attacks
- There were 11 DeFi hacking incidents in October alone
1/ After four hacks yesterday, October is now the biggest month in the biggest year ever for hacking activity, with more than half the month still to go. So far this month, $718 million has been stolen from #DeFi protocols across 11 different hacks. pic.twitter.com/emz36f6gpK
— Chainalysis (@chainalysis) October 12, 2022
The amount lost to DeFi hacks this year has surpassed previous years and is significantly higher compared to CeFi hacks, such as Crypto.com's $30 million at the beginning of the year and Deribit's $28 million more recently.
However, if we consider the chain reaction of hacks on CeFi platforms in the second half of the year, excluding incidents like FTX and Celsius, just the bad debts from Three Arrows Capital are enough to rival the total DeFi hacking amounts.
7/1: Three Arrows Capital - $3.5 Billion
According to legal documents, Three Arrows Capital filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy on July 1 with assets exceeding $30 billion, and creditors holding documents claim that 3AC owes a total of around $3.5 billion.
7/5: Voyager Digital
Voyager filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, with an estimated over 100,000 creditors.
The scale of creditor claims is unknown, but previously FTX attempted to acquire Voyager for $1.422 billion. However, FTX also faced bankruptcy, and subsequently, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao stated that Binance US would bid on Voyager again.
7/13: Celsius - $5.5 Billion
Celsius suspended withdrawals as early as June 13 and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 13.
According to documents, Celsius owes creditors a total of $5.5 billion. Related parties include 3AC and FTX, with the former owing Celsius $75 million and the latter around $13.9 million.
11/11: FTX, Alameda - $8 Billion
The FTX Group, consisting of approximately 130 companies including FTX Trading, West Realm Shires Service, and Alameda, simultaneously filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and the total debt scale is currently unconfirmed.
Documents show that the total amount of damages to the top 50 creditors is nearly $3.1 billion. Bloomberg previously reported that FTX faced a funding gap of up to $8 billion, which is the most commonly cited number.
11/28: BlockFi - $1.3 Billion
Impacted by 3AC and briefly acquired by FTX, BlockFi suspended withdrawals on November 10 and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on November 28.
Documents show that just the top 50 creditors have a total of $1.3 billion, including a $30 million fine from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the fourth largest creditor.