Centralized exchanges are becoming the new ground zero for hackers, as shown by a 900% increase in losses year-over-year.

Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you the most significant developments from the past week.

This past week, significant new developments were announced by industry-leading Web3 firms, including MetaMask, Polygon and StarkNet. Each revealed promising new infrastructure developments that could bolster mainstream adoption.

On the downside, cryptocurrency hacks continue eroding mainstream trust, as total hacked funds surpassed $1.4 billion in 2024 — not because of DeFi protocols but mainly because of centralized exchanges (CEXs).

Are centralized exchanges becoming the main target for crypto hackers? A 900% year-over-year increase in losses incurred by CEXs suggests so.