In 2025, hackers and different cybercriminals seized about $2.7 billion in cryptocurrency – a document excessive in the historical past of crypto-asset-related breaches.
The most important incident was the assault on the cryptocurrency change Bybit, the place attackers took about $1.4 billion. Based on consultants and the FBI, authorities hackers from North Korea are implicated in this malicious act – one of the crucial skilled teams lively in the crypto sphere these days.
Previous to that, the biggest cryptocurrency thefts in 2022 have been $624 million and $611 million through the Ronin Community and Poly Community breaches.
Based on Chainalysis and TRM Labs, the entire quantity stolen in 2025 is estimated at $2.7 billion. Chainalysis additionally recorded an extra about $700k stolen from particular person cryptocurrency wallets.
Key Occasions of the 12 months
De.Fi, a Web3 safety firm that maintains the REKT database, additionally tallies losses and breaches at about $2.7 billion for the earlier yr.
After all, North Korean authorities hackers remained essentially the most profitable crypto thieves in 2025: in keeping with Chainalysis and Elliptic they stole not less than $2 billion, and the entire since 2017 might exceed $6 billion. Such actions fund the nation’s sanctioned nuclear and ballistic missile program.
Different severe incidents included the theft from the decentralized change Cetus of $223 million, an assault on the Balancer protocol with losses of about $128 million, and the hack of the Phemex change – attackers seized greater than $73 million.
The pattern reveals no indicators of stopping: in 2024, criminals stole $2.2 billion, and in 2023 – $2 billion. Consultants forecast continued excessive exercise of assaults on crypto infrastructure and DeFi initiatives in the longer term.
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai – senior TechCrunch journalist who specializes in breaches, cybersecurity, surveillance, and privateness.
You may attain Lorenzo at [email protected], ship an encrypted message through Sign at +1 917 257 1382, or through the @lorenzofb account on Keybase/Telegram.
Consultants emphasize: to strengthen safety, consideration must be paid to smart-contract audits, asset monitoring, and bolstering cybersecurity on DeFi platforms, because the risk from malicious actors stays excessive.
