In the last 30 days, the market structure has undergone significant changes as cryptocurrencies experienced substantial gains. Despite this optimistic outlook, a major concern for both crypto investors and traders remains the ongoing prevalence of exploitation, hacks, and scams.
These substantial crypto losses occurred in three different categories. The majority of losses, totaling over $58.2 million, resulted from exit scams, while Flash loans experienced the least loss at only $138K. Exploits accounted for the highest losses at $101 million, and $6.4 million in losses were attributed to returned incidents.
Among the major incidents that occurred in February 2024, BitForex, a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency centralized exchange (CEX), seized headlines as it went offline following the withdrawal of $57 million from its hot wallet on February 23, 2024. The second-largest incident involved a substantial loss on the South Korean blockchain game development platform PlayDapp, which reported a crypto loss reaching $32.4 million.
Following these two major losses, more than eight crypto firms also reported significant losses. FixedFloat led the pack with a crypto loss exceeding $26 million, followed by Jihoz.Ron with losses surpassing $9.7 million. Seneca USD faced crypto losses over $6.5 million, DuelBits reported a loss of over $4.7 million, and LastPass experienced losses exceeding $4.4 million. Additionally, Shido, starlay, and BlueberryFDN collectively reported a crypto loss exceeding $5.9 million.
These cumulative crypto losses in 2024 due to exploits, exits, and flash loans reached a staggering amount of $343 million. However, these losses are the primary reason traditional investors remain hesitant to show interest in cryptocurrency.
Beyond all these losses, the overall cryptocurrency market gained significantly in February 2024. Top cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance Coin, and Solana experienced a massive upside momentum. The world’s biggest crypto, Bitcoin, witnessed a price surge of over 40% in the last 30 days, while Ethereum, BNB, and SOL also experienced substantial price surges of over 50%, 30%, and 45%, respectively.
