Crypto industry loses $110 million to hacks in July

The cryptocurrency industry experienced approximately $110 million in losses due to hacks during July. Despite these persistent security risks, bug bounty activity saw an 18% increase in confirmed and paid reports during the same period.

According to Immunefi, researchers earned $2.32 million for uncovering verified vulnerabilities in July, contributing to cumulative researcher payouts of $143.1 million. The data suggests that proactive security testing is becoming a vital defense; researchers prevented 374 threats through bounty programs in July, up from 317 in June and 339 in May.

Immunefi’s analysis also highlighted differences in detection methods. While top-tier private audits found a median of zero critical or high-severity bugs, audit competitions uncovered an average of 6.2 serious bugs per engagement. Furthermore, competitions proved more cost-effective, averaging $6,548 to identify a critical bug compared to approximately $66,000 for private top-tier audits.