Crypto Thieves Strike Big in August: Over $45M Stolen with Pepe Exploit at the Helm

According to CertiK, a blockchain security firm, the cryptocurrency industry experienced significant damage from malicious actors in August.

It has been reported that over $45 million in digital assets were stolen from victims, with the PEPE exploit being the primary cause, resulting in a loss of $13.2 million.

• Data reveals that exit scams accounted for approximately $26 million, while flash loan attacks and exploits took a combined total of nearly $20 million. This brings the total losses in the crypto space to more than $45 million in August alone.

#CertiKStatsAlert 🚨

Combining all the incidents in August we’ve confirmed ~$45.8M lost to exploits, hacks and scams.

Exit scams were ~$26M

Flash loans were ~$6.4M

Exploits were ~$13.5M

See more details below 👇 pic.twitter.com/L2gsJYBJ3b

— CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) August 31, 2023

• Notable contributors to this statistic include the Zunami Protocol attack, which led to $2.2 million in losses, and the Exactly Protocol exploit, which siphoned off $7.3 million.
• However, the most significant incident, the PEPE withdrawal, accounted for $13.2 million in losses, making it one of the most significant exploits in August.
• The incident involved a mysterious withdrawal of $16 million from the Pepecoin (PEPE) project’s multi-sig wallet.
• Reportedly, three former members of the project planned the theft and subsequently handed over control to the sole remaining one.
• As a result, PEPE’s price plunged by approximately 15% on Aug. 24, sparked by the community’s fear of a potential rug pull after spotting the sum withdrawn from the Pepe multi-sig wallet and transferred to various exchanges.
• PEPE is currently trading at $0.000000816110, down by 8% over the past week, with a 24-hour trading volume of $63,593,981, according to data from CoinGecko.