According to a quarterly report from blockchain security company CertiK, the third quarter of 2023 was the “most financially damaging” quarter of the year, with nearly $700 million in digital assets lost to various security incidents. The report pointed out that a total of 184 security incidents occurred in the third quarter, and the loss of crypto assets exceeded US$699 million, far exceeding the US$320 million loss in the first quarter and the US$313 million loss in the second quarter.

Among exploits that resulted in losses, private key compromise was ranked as the most damaging, with losses exceeding $204 million in 14 incidents. The multi-chain incident resulted in $125 million in losses, highlighting the vulnerabilities that can result from centralized control of enterprise private keys. In addition, exit scams and oracle manipulation incidents were also common this quarter, taking up more than $55 million and $16 million in digital assets respectively.

In September, an exploitation incident of the cross-chain protocol Mixin Network resulted in the loss of assets worth US$200 million. CertiK's report also noted that the North Korean state-affiliated hacking group Lazarus remained a "primary threat actor" during the quarter and was responsible for at least $291 million in confirmed losses.