Losses from crypto-related scams, hacks, and exploits dropped significantly in March, falling to $28.8 million, a sharp contrast to February’s staggering $1.5 billion loss primarily driven by the Bybit hack, according to blockchain security firm CertiK.
CertiK reported on April 1 via X that smart contract code vulnerabilities were the primary cause of losses totalling over $14 million, while compromised wallets accounted for over $8 million in stolen assets.
On March 25, a smart contract exploit affected the decentralized lending protocol Abracadabra.money, resulting in a loss of $13 million. A subsequent report from CertiK on March 27 revealed that the attacker exploited faulty record updates in the RouterOrder system to manipulate the liquidation process, enabling them to borrow funds without repayment.
In response, the Abracadabra.money team announced a 20% bounty offer—double the usual 10%—to incentivize the attacker to return the stolen funds. However, there have been no public updates on any potential recovery.
The second-largest loss of March stemmed from an attack on restaking protocol Zoth, where the deployer’s wallet was compromised, allowing the attacker to siphon over $8.4 million in crypto assets. Some of the stolen funds were later returned.
Overall, CertiK estimates that over $33 million was stolen throughout March.
However, after negotiating a bug bounty deal with the hacker, decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch successfully recovered most of the $5 million lost in a March 5 exploit.
A Coinbase user reportedly lost 400 Bitcoin, valued at $34 million, due to an undisclosed exploit, according to crypto investigator ZachXBT. Additionally, phishing scams posing as crypto exchanges may have led to losses exceeding $46 million in March.
Authorities have issued warnings about increasing phishing attacks. The Australian Federal Police alerted 130 individuals about scams using fake messages resembling legitimate crypto exchanges. Additionally, reports highlighted scam attempts that encouraged users to create new wallets using recovery phrases controlled by attackers.
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