Crypto lost $110 million to hacks in July amid rising bug bounty activity: Immunefi

The crypto industry lost roughly $110 million to hacks in July, according to Immunefi, as the cybersecurity platform reported a rise in confirmed bug reports amid new findings on the effectiveness of crypto audits.

Immunefi said in a statement on Monday that its researchers received $2.32 million for confirmed bugs during the month, while bug bounty reports that were confirmed and paid increased 18%. 

The firm’s review of 1,178 tier-1 audits found a median of zero critical or high-severity bugs, it added. 

However, the review compared those audits with 58 Immunefi audit competitions, which found more serious bugs per engagement, according to the firm. Immunefi said the competitions identified an average of 6.2 serious bugs per engagement, compared with 1.5 for tier-1 audits.

Immunefi also said the cost of identifying a critical bug averaged $6,548 in an audit competition, compared with about $66,000 in a private tier-1 audit and $24.5 million when an attacker discovered the vulnerability first.

The firm said 374 threats were prevented through its bug bounty programs during the month, up from 317 in June and 339 in May. Cumulative researcher payouts reached $143.1 million, compared with $140.8 million in June.