Crypto Losses Reach $163 Million in August as Big Wallets Targeted – Crypto News

Crypto hackers and scammers stole over $163 million from the crypto space in August across 16 separate attacks — with a social engineering attack against a Bitcoiner accounting for the lion’s share of losses. 

Blockchain security firm PeckShield said in an X post on Monday that August’s losses are a 15% increase compared to July, which only recorded $142 million, though it’s down 47% year on year. 

Cybersecurity experts told Coinelegraph the increase in August was driven by hackers shifting their efforts to high-value targets and the rise in crypto prices. 

Crypto hackers concentrate on high-value targets 

Speaking to Cointelegraph, PeckShield said there was a strategic shift by hackers last month, as they are now concentrating on centralized exchanges and other high-value individual targets.

Two incidents in particular inflated the total for August. A Bitcoiner who was the victim of a social engineering attack lost 783 Bitcoin (BTC), worth $91 million at the time, in a single transaction after bad actors masqueraded as a crypto exchange and hardware wallet support.