The link in the OP must have been old/partial information, and there's no guarantee this one isn't too, but it looks like well over $3B worth of crypto was stolen
just in 2021 and
just in publicized attacks. The true amount is probably 2x or 3x that. The Coinbase hack was probably the biggest and its amounts were undisclosed.
https://crypto-corner.com/2021/04/20/hacked-crypto-exchanges/With more than 40 hacks and breaches reported in 2021 alone, we are witnessing a continuous rise in crypto fraud-related incidents each year.
Over $3 billion in total losses have been recorded in 2021 and on average, the number of offenses grows 41% every year
Here are some selected exerpts. Ask yourself:how hard would it have been to do these as insider attacks?
The network revealed that the attacker installed a bug on the Binance Blockchain codebase of pNetwork.
You know who else could install a bug?
At least 6000 customers have been victims of unauthorized third parties exploiting a flaw in the company’s SMS account recovery process to gain access to multiple accounts, and transfer funds to crypto wallets not associated with Coinbase.
Huuuuh? Who designed that process, and why didn't they just use the standard techniques banks use for pw recovery? Oh, I get it...
Even as it is being liquidated following a previous breach that stole NZ$24 million (US$15.5 million), this exchange gets hacked again.
When people already think you write buggy code, that's the best time to steal what's left.
The attacker may have implanted malware into one of the exchange’s computers. As an employee accessed the affected machine to make two transfers, the attack was launched.
"Gosh, I have no idea why 'the attack was launched' from a script on my computer." What were you running, Windows XP?
In an official statement, the Tokyo-based organization shared that attackers hijacked one of Coincheck’s domains to carry out spear-phishing attacks on customers.
I suppose the password was "password123"? When's the last time something like this happened to Bank of America or Citigroup?
The largest bitcoin exchange in Canada lost $190 million in crypto following the death of its founder and CEO Gerald Cotten, the sole controller of the exchange’s cold storage wallets.
This is the most honest way to lose everyone's money: die with a passcode stuck in your brain wetware. But then again, why did one person control access to all the coins in an entire exchange? What was he planning? Banks and brokerages don't run this way.
And at least some insider attacks were publicized:
Allegedly, the founder took off with $2 billion USD of customers money and fled to Albania.
I can only conclude that:
1) Trading crypto is nothing more than putting one's wealth into the hands of a random stranger on the internet, or a bunch of random strangers on the internet. It is the exact opposite of a "trustless" transaction. There is no recourse if these people decide to run off with your "coins". All you know about them is that they're the type of person who sets up one of these crypto exchanges that keep "losing" customers' funds.
2) If most hacks were not insider attacks, it would be a missed opportunity on the part of the insiders, who can commit the perfect crime and always get away with it after some technical details hand-waving. There's minimal law enforcement, and 100% of digital evidence can be covered up or fabricated. It's not hard convincing oneself that the victims deserve it.
3) There is nothing to stop an exchange / wallet service from pulling a Bernie Madoff / classic Ponzi and displaying non-existent assets on customers' screens. Customers would believe they own X coins because their screen says so. They could also display fake audit information (IDK if exchange auditors are even a thing that exists). As long as there's not a run on the bank, so to speak, the organization could keep up this ruse for years with a minimal base of liquidity to handle the occasional sale request. Thus, it's a near certainty some unknown number of exchanges/wallet services are empty shells and their customers don't know it because they think they are HODL'ing.
4) Some percentage of the "liquidity" and "trading volume" in crypto is to facilitate these frauds or launder assets stolen out of exchanges. A lot of the "demand" for crypto is manufactured by the fraud itself.