Cryptocurrency exploits reach record $1.1 billion in first half of 2024

Cryptocurrency protocols suffered record losses during the first half of the year, with hackers conducting 212 onchain exploits that siphoned $1.1 billion in total, according to blockchain security firm Blockaid. North Korea-linked groups accounted for $609 million, or 55% of the total losses.

Ethereum and Solana networks sustained the heaviest protocol-level damage, each losing approximately $332 million and $326 million respectively. Two major breaches—KelpDAO at $292 million and Drift Protocol at $285 million—were both tied to the same North Korea-linked cluster.

Attack frequency accelerated sharply throughout the period, climbing from 18 exploits in January to 57 in June, with April alone seeing $635 million stolen. Blockaid reported verifying more high-threshold exploits during these six months than across all of 2023, pointing to an escalation in attacker sophistication and scale.

Operational security failures, particularly privileged key misuse, drove roughly $790 million in damages—far exceeding losses from code vulnerabilities alone. Emerging attack vectors include prompt injection targeting AI agents and novel wallet delegation exploits that circumvent traditional defenses. While some vulnerabilities allow partial fund freezes or recoveries through code mechanisms, recovery outcomes vary widely across cases.