Cryptocurrency has been at the front of global financial headlines, which is owed to its ability to disrupt the market with either bullish or bearish value in a way nobody can perfectly predict. Regardless of its volatile nature, cryptocurrency remains an investment prospect that is garnering huge trade on different crypto exchanges and wallets.

Due to the wide adoption of third-party wallet services, users’ digital assets are only as secure as the measures taken by the providers themselves.

Cryptocurrency and blockchain security problems are exposed regularly in the media, demonstrating how vulnerable digital money and the blockchain are.

These third-party trading apps have been used by hackers to directly target cryptocurrency. Up to this point, they’ve made off with around $4 billion in stolen goods.

There is no doubt that cryptocurrency values have skyrocketed in recent years. Hackers could have amassed about $90 billion in fortune if they had held on to all of the cryptos they stole and cashed them in today.

In other words, how has the evolution of crypto heists been documented? What is the total amount of money that has been stolen? Many platforms have been forced to shut down as a result.

Top Crypto Heists Ranked

According to our findings, based on the amount of crypto stolen in USD, here are the largest crypto heists to date.

1. Poly Network

  • Year of theft: August 2021
  • Amount: $610 million

In August 2021, a hacker breached Poly Network’s security and stole almost $600 million in cash.

Although they were rewarded for their efforts, they were unable to keep it in an unusual twist. Hacker approached the platform and promised to restore the majority of the cash, except for $33 million in tether (USDT) that had been frozen by the issuers.

The story didn’t end there as about recovered about $200 million of the stolen money, which both the hacker and Poly Network had to provide a password for the account. In the beginning, the hacker refused to share their password.

Only Poly Network, who begged them to release it and promised them a job in exchange for finding the weakness, offered them a $500,000 incentive. Later, Poly Network revealed that the secret key had been given to them by “Mr. White Hat. ”

2. Coincheck

  • Year of theft: January 2018
  • Amount: $530 million
  • Reported crypto loss: 523 million NEM

Coincheck, a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, had its NEM tokens stolen in January 2018 for a total of $530 million.

Hot wallets, which were connected to the server and so “live,” were exploited by the hackers (a cold wallet sees funds stored offline).

NEM developers were able to track down and identify the missing coins, despite rumors that they were available on the black market.

It is unlikely that many people would have felt this was a good deal, given how much the coins lost in value after the attack (the coins are currently worth 83% less than they were–roughly $90 million).

3. MT Gox

  • Year of theft: February 2014
  • Amount: $470 million
  • Reported crypto loss: 850,000 BTC

To date, this has been the greatest theft of Bitcoins from a cryptocurrency exchange. In contrast, the MT Gox heist was not an isolated incident. From 2011 until February 2014 there were leaks in the platform’s financial system.

Over a few years, hackers stole 100,000 BTC from the exchange and 750,000 BTC from its customers.

When these bitcoins were first created, they were valued at $470 million, but they’re now worth roughly $4.7 billion. More than 200,000 stolen BTC were recovered from MT Gox’s bankruptcy shortly after the theft.

4. Wormhole

  • Year of theft: February 2022
  • Amount: $326 million
  • Reported crypto loss: 120,000 wETH

Hackers stole $326 million from the Wormhole crypto platform in the first major crypto theft of 2022 in February. Solana (an Ethereum competitor that has recently gained popularity) and other decentralized financial networks can communicate through the platform.

The wormhole was forced to shut down its platform on February 2, 2022, while it examined a vulnerability discovered by hackers. The theft of 120k wrapped Ethereum (wETH) coins were later discovered.

5. KuCoin

  • Year of theft: September 2020
  • Amount: $281 million
  • Reported crypto loss: Undisclosed

Hackers obtained the private keys to KuCoin’s hot wallets before withdrawing substantial quantities of Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC), along with Bitcoin SV (BSV), Litecoin (LTC), XRP (XRP), Stellar Lumens (XLM), Tron (TRX), and Tether (USDT), in September 2020. (USDT).

As a result, many experts now assume that North Korean hackers were responsible.

6. PancakeBunny

  • Year of theft: May 2021
  • Amount: $200 million
  • Reported crypto loss: Undisclosed

During a flash loan assault in May 2021, hackers drained $200 million from the site. Binance Coin (BNB) was loaned to the hacker before he or she manipulated the price and dumped it on PancakeBunny’s BUNNY/BNB market.

That made it possible for an unscrupulous hacker to borrow a huge sum of BUNNY in an instant, sell it for a discount, and then pay it back using pancakes was.

7. Bitmart

  • Year of theft: December 2021
  • Amount: $196 million
  • Reported crypto loss: Undisclosed

Nearly $200 million was stolen from Bitmart’s hot wallet in December 2021. It was initially thought that $100 million had been stolen via the Ethereum blockchain, but additional research found that another $96 million had been stolen via the Binance Smart Chain blockchains.

BSC-USD, Binance Coin, BNBBPay (BPay), and Safemoon, as well as huge amounts of Moonshot, Floki, and BabyDoge, were among the altcoins whose tokens were taken in the theft.

8. Bitgrail

  • Year of theft: February 2018
  • Amount: $150 million
  • Reported crypto loss: 17 million XRB

This was an Italian exchange that traded in cryptocurrencies such as Nano that Bitgrail specialized in (XRB). Coinciding with XRB’s meteoric rise from $0.001 to $33.03 in value, the exchange was breached in February 2018.

The theft of at least 17 million coins (equal to approximately $150 million) from nano wallets has been reported. the incident, many users expressed their dissatisfaction with the exchange (significantly lower withdrawal limits and transaction problems).

Furthermore, the money was taken from cold wallets rather than hot wallets, which suggests that the crime was an inside job.

Italian authorities recently accused Bitgrail’s owner of being directly involved in the attacks (either directly involved or aware/doing nothing to prevent additional theft after the first attack had been carried out) during the past few years.

9. Vulcan Forged

  • Year of theft: December 2021
  • Amount: $135 million
  • Reported crypto loss: 4.5 million PYR

Hackers stole $135 million from Vulcan Forged, a blockchain gaming startup, in December of 2021, according to the New York Times. About 96 wallets had their private keys stolen before 4.5 million PYR tokens were stolen.

10. Cream Finance

  • Year of theft: October 2021
  • Amount: $130 million
  • Reported crypto loss: Undisclosed

In addition to stealing $130 million, this October 2021 hack was Cream Finance’s third of the year.

In February, hackers made off with $37 million, and in August, they made off with $29 million. In the most recent attack, hackers exploited a hole in the DeFi platform’s “flash lending” technology.

Cream Finance’s $130 million worth of tokens and assets were eligible to be taken on the Ethereum network.

Conclusion

The digital world is characterized by merits and demerits, which is always a call to profit from the prospects of cryptocurrency while being careful of its pitfall. With the growing popularity of cryptocurrency and the emergence of different crypto exchanges and wallets, it is important to know that the two platforms can be vulnerable to theft, hence leading to funding loss.

Therefore, ensure you observe privacy measures in your transactions to prevent being a victim of a crypto heist.