Boom of Meme Coins Attracts Scammers to Solana Network — Hacken Report

The total losses in the Web3 market for 2024 have exceeded $2.9 billion, impacting DeFi, CeFi platforms, gaming, and metaverses. In 78% of cases, breaches were caused by access control vulnerabilities, according to a report by Hacken.

Key Findings:

• Losses in the DeFi segment decreased by 40% compared to last year, from $787 million to $474 million. The largest incident was the Radiant Capital hack, resulting in $55 million in losses.
• Losses in the CeFi sector more than doubled, reaching $694 million. Major incidents included the compromise of private keys at DMM Exchange ($305 million) and the exploitation of a multisig vulnerability at WazirX ($230 million).
• Attacks on cross-chain protocols saw a sharp decline, with losses dropping 70%, from $338 million in 2023 to $114 million in 2024.
• Gaming projects and metaverses collectively lost $389 million, accounting for 18% of all crypto-related incidents.
• Phishing scams resulted in $600 million in stolen assets.

Emerging Trends in Scams:

• Rug pull schemes remain prevalent but have shifted focus from the BNB Chain to Solana, largely due to the rising popularity of meme coins.
• Pre-sale scams emerged as a significant trend this year. According to on-chain investigator ZachXBT, 27 such incidents in April 2024 alone netted scammers over $122.5 million.
• Scammers frequently used the names of public figures and influencers to promote meme tokens.

Background:

Earlier data from Chainalysis revealed that North Korean hackers stole at least $1.34 billion worth of crypto assets in 2024.