Crypto Theft: A $1. 38 Billion Surge in 2024

Hackers have been on a roll this year, stealing twice as much cryptocurrency in the first six months of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, according to a recent report by TRM Labs. The total loot now stands at a whopping $1. 38 billion, with a few massive heists making up most of that amount. You might be wondering what methods these hackers are using. Well, they're still mainly targeting private keys and seed phrases, which are like digital passwords that let them dive into your crypto wallet. The biggest hit so far? A Japanese exchange, DMM Bitcoin, got cleaned out of over $300 million worth of bitcoin. Hackers either swiped their private keys or tricked them with a sneaky tactic called address poisoning. Crypto addresses are basically long, complicated jumbles of numbers and letters that are easy to mess up if you're entering them by hand. Experts at TRM Labs say that despite the massive increase, there hasn't been a significant change in the way the crypto world is protecting itself. It's more about the higher average cost of crypto in the first half of this year that's making the stolen goods worth more.