According to a report from Web3 outlet De.Fi shared with Cointelegraph, the cryptocurrency market has had its worst month of 2023. Losses for July totaled $486 million, more than six times the total from the previous year.
This comes after a series of high-profile hacks and exploits in the month of July, as well as legislative activity concerning digital assets. Of the stolen cryptocurrency and digital assets, only $6.15 million has been recovered, meaning nearly 99% of the losses still remain unrecovered.
The researchers at De.Fi believe not enough is being done to expedite the recovery process, noting “Regrettably, the recovery efforts in July 2023 were woefully inadequate, with only $6,796,915 recouped from the vast $486.35 million lost.”
The vast majority of losses, amounting to $447 million, occurred on the Ethereum network. This includes the Multichain hack, which had a loss of $231 million, and the Alphapo exploit, which resulted in a loss of around $100 million. Base follows with $23 million lost in a single case, and Binance with nearly $11 million lost across 18 cases.
The De.Fi report found that most of the funds were lost due to “access control issues,” with $364 million lost. Rugpulls resulted in $36 million lost, and reentrancy attacks led to $78 million lost.
Fortunately, there were no reported exit scams in July. The researchers at De.Fi believe that quick recovery of stolen or lost funds is a pivotal element in minimizing the impact of such incidents.
