Any one who has been into crypto for at least 2 years has most probably experienced more than one hack or loss of funds. For all the life changing money that crypto can make you, it can also take away that money in the blink of an eye. Either through hackers constantly targeting these exchanges, protocols and projects that control massive amounts of user funds, or by the users themselves falling for scams, phishing hacks or rug pulls. Today we examine 5 of the biggest hacks (monetary wise) that have happened in crypto. They are;

5. BitGrail: $146m was hacked from BitGrail, an Italian exchange in Feb 2018. It’s estimated that 230,000 users were affected and around $140-$195 million was lost. The hackers were reported to have begun siphoning funds in January but it was until February 10 that Francesco Firano, BitGrail’s founder, ceased operations and notified authorities. It was too late, and to make it worse the police found evidence of Firano’s involvement in the attack. He was charged with computer fraud, fraudulent bankruptcy and money laundering. As of August 2021, the case remains unsolved and the exchange has been ordered to refund users' stolen assets ASAP. 

4. KuCoin: Kucoin, one of the leading crypto exchanges was attacked Sept 25th 2020 and is estimated to have lost around $281m in the hack, but the exchange was able to recover most of the funds and refund users. The attack is suspected to have been carried out by North Korean hackers. Kucoin however was able to recover 84% of the stolen funds by partnering with blockchain data firm Chainalysis to track stolen funds, and cooperating with law enforcement agencies and fellow exchanges. The rest of the stolen funds were refunded to users from the exchanges’ capital and insurance fund.

3. MtGox: MtGox at some point was the biggest exchange in the world, handling over 70% of all Bitcoin transactions. However, the development of its backend stagnated and it made the exchange an ideal target for hackers. Hackers kept stealing Bitcoin from the exchange from late 2011up till Feb 24 2014, by then they had stolen 744,408 Bitcoins valued at $460 million then, but today worth $35 billion. MtGox filed for bankruptcy soon after though there has been victim claims’ processes, funds have never been fully returned to the affected users. It remains one of the most significant crypto hacks.

2. Coincheck: On Jan 26 2018, $534m was stolen from Japanese exchange Coincheck. 523 million NEM (XEM) valued at 530 million at the time were stolen after they were stored in a hot wallet by the exchange. The exchange admitted that they were hacked because they had technical difficulties and  shortage of staff resulting in poor security practices. Coincheck eventually reimbursed all customers with their own capital and they did not shut down. They are still in operation to this day. 

1. Poly Network: The hack of Poly Network, is the largest confirmed crypto heist in history. $610m was hacked from the Chinese platform on Aug 10, 2021 in various coins. A hacker, or group of hackers, found a way to release funds stored on the Network without receiving legitimate permission from another blockchain. The Poly Network team were able to reach out to the hacker and established communication soon after the attack and the total stolen funds was returned.

The story in this is that no platform or exchange is 100% safe and the best advice one can give is to store your digital assets in a cold wallet and try to diversify them in case funds are stolen so all your holdings don’t get cleaned in one move.