Hacken: Access control exploits account for nearly 80% of all crypto hacks in 2024

Crypto hacks in 2024 caused nearly $3 billion in damages, with access control flaws driving 78% of the losses, data shows.

2024 proved to be another challenging year for blockchain security, with nearly $3 billion lost to crypto hacks, according to Hacken’s latest research report.

Although the total financial impact was on par with 2023, attacks exploiting access control vulnerabilities surged sharply. Hacken’s data shows these flaws accounted for 78% of the losses, affecting a wide range of sectors, including decentralized finance, centralized finance, and gaming/metaverse platforms.

According to the report, access control vulnerabilities turned out to be the biggest threat, accounting for 75% of crypto hack losses, excluding phishing. Meanwhile, DeFi accounted for 20.4% of total hack losses, while CeFi losses made up 30%, the report reads. The gaming and metaverse sectors also faced major losses, totalling $389 million — about 20% of all crypto hack damages.

At the same time, cross-chain bridge-related losses saw a notable drop to $117 million, down from $330 million in 2023 and $1.9 billion in 2022. Additionally, the blockchain security firm noted that crypto projects faced increased DNS hijacking incidents, highlighting the need for comprehensive security strategies.

Hacken claims the data was sourced from verified crypto project reports, including platforms like X, post-mortems, and databases.