Hackers have stolen over $86 million worth of NFTs as exploits continue to rise in 2022

According to research data recently released by pro-consumer website Comparitech, NFT thefts are becoming more frequent and quite lucrative, with 2022 accounting for the majority of the exploits.

Comparitech has been monitoring NFT thefts ever since the industry recorded its first case of theft as far back as 2020. Since then, over $86.6 million worth of tokens (over $896.5 million at today’s rate) has been stolen.

2022, in particular, has seen a rapid increasein the overall number of NFT exploits. Out of 166 NFT theft incidents, 14 occurred in 2021, with 2020 recording just 2 cases. The remaining 150 exploits took place in 2022. March was the worst month for collectors, accounting for 31 thefts.

Sports-based NFT subsidiary of Animoca Brands, Lympo, is currently holding the title of the largest attack based on the amount stolen at the time of the heist, with 165.2 million LMT tokens lost in a hot wallet hack back in January 2022. At the time of the attack, the tokens were worth $18.7 million.

Meanwhile, the WAX chain game Farmers World suffered a hack that resulted in $15.7 million worth of NFTs being stolen in November 2021.

BAYC has suffered the third-largest NFT hack ever with $13.7 million stolen. At the time of the attack, the floor price for the stolen NFTs was about $14 million. Its Instagram account was also hacked in April 2022, leading to the theft of dozens of NFTs from users.

Comparitech excluded rug pulls, employee thefts, phishing scams, and company errors from its research narrowing it down to clear exploits and NFT attacks identified by security trackers such as PeckShield or CertiK.

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