Private key compromises led crypto hack losses over the past decade as recent DeFi exploits show attackers moving beyond smart contract bugs.
Private key compromises are emerging as one of crypto’s costliest attack vectors, with hackers stealing more than $17 billion across 518 recorded incidents over the past decade, according to data platform DefiLlama.
In data shared Tuesday, DefiLlama’s dashboard shows a large share of those incidents stemmed from compromised private keys, alongside phishing and other credential-based attacks.
Around 22.3% of the incidents were attributed to private key compromises through “brute force,” 18.2% to private key compromises via “unknown methods,” and 10% occurred due to phishing attacks on multi-signature wallets.
