According to Yahoo Finance, citing an Immunefi report, in the first quarter of 2022, crypto projects lost more than $1.22 billion as a result of the actions of hackers and scammers. This is 695% more than in the same period of the previous year.

The DeFi ecosystem has become the focus of attackers’ activities.

Up to 99% of losses are due to software vulnerabilities, including the largest Wormhole and Ronin hacks since the beginning of the year – $319 million and $625 million respectively.

According to experts, this is not an anomaly. Such attacks will continue to spread, and fraud against investors will decrease.

“Such incidents are expected to become more frequent as more criminal groups acquire their own DeFi hacking skills. Also, these hacks become more profitable as the industry grows,” said Mitchell Amador, founder and CEO of Immunefi.

According to Amador, after the market peak in November 2021, the number of newcomers entering the market has decreased. This has generally made it less likely for investors to fall into scams through experience.

The founder of the RugDocsIO project, nicknamed Rug Doctor, also noted that the increase in the number of DeFi platforms has played an important role in increasing the number of costly thefts.

Projects are increasingly moving beyond Ethereum due to high fees and favoring Tier 1 networks such as Solana, Avalanche, Polygon, Algorand, Polkadot or Cardano. But Rug Doctor said the number of auditors and security experts hasn’t kept up with the innovation.

“Many protocols do not invest enough in security. We’re seeing more and more talented programmers come to DeFi, including attackers. The industry needs to encourage talented developers and focus more on security than ever before. We need grants, training programs and industry standards,” says the expert.

Recall that in 2021, attackers targeting the crypto industry earned a record $14 billion, according to Chainalysis.