Crypto August: A Month of Losses

In August, the cryptocurrency industry faced significant challenges due to malicious activities, as reported by CertiK, a blockchain security firm.

During this turbulent month, digital assets worth more than $45 million were unlawfully taken from unsuspecting victims. The primary culprit behind these losses was the PEPE exploit, which alone accounted for $13.2 million.

The data also points to exit scams contributing around $26 million to the overall losses, while flash loan attacks and exploits combined to inflict nearly $20 million in damages. Consequently, the total losses within the crypto space ballooned to over $45 million in August.

#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

Among the noteworthy incidents, the Zunami Protocol attack caused $2.2 million in losses, and the Exactly Protocol exploit drained $7.3 million.

However, the most substantial setback came from the PEPE withdrawal, resulting in a staggering $13.2 million loss. This incident was marked by a mysterious withdrawal of $16 million from the multi-signature wallet of the Pepecoin (PEPE) project. Reportedly, three former project members orchestrated the theft and then transferred control to the remaining individual.

This unfortunate event led to a sharp 15% decline in PEPE's price on August 24. The cryptocurrency community grew concerned about the possibility of a rug pull when they observed the substantial withdrawal from the Pepe multi-signature wallet, followed by transfers to various exchanges.

At present, PEPE is trading at $0.000000816110, reflecting an 8% decrease over the past week, with a 24-hour trading volume of $63,593,981, according to data provided by CoinGecko.