Cybercriminals stole $2.7 billion in crypto this 12 months, a brand new file for crypto-stealing hacks, in accordance with blockchain-monitoring companies.
As soon as once more, in 2025, there have been dozens of crypto heists hitting a number of cryptocurrency exchanges and different web3 and decentralized finance (DeFi) initiatives. The largest hack by far was the breach at Dubai-based crypto change Bybit, the place hackers stole round $1.4 billion in crypto. Blockchain evaluation companies, in addition to the FBI, accused North Korean authorities hackers — essentially the most prolific group concentrating on crypto in the previous few years — of this huge heist.
This was the most important identified loot of crypto of all time, and one of many largest monetary heists within the historical past of humanity. Earlier than the Bybit hack, the most important crypto thefts netted $624 million and $611 million for hackers within the 2022 breaches in opposition to the Ronin Community and the Poly Community, respectively.
Cryptocurrency-monitoring companies Chainalysis and TRM Labs each estimated a complete of $2.7 billion stolen in crypto in 2025, per knowledge shared with information.killnetswitch. Chainalysis additionally tracked one other $700,000 stolen from particular person crypto wallets, the corporate stated.
De.Fi, the web3 security agency operating the REKT database that tracks crypto thefts, additionally estimated $2.7 billion in stolen and hacked crypto final 12 months.
As standard, North Korean authorities hackers have been essentially the most profitable crypto thieves all through 2025, after stealing at the very least $2 billion, in accordance with Chainalysis and Elliptic, which estimated that Kim Jong Un’s hackers have stolen round $6 billion since 2017. North Korea makes use of crypto thefts to fund its sanctioned nuclear weapons program.
Different important crypto hacks this 12 months included the one in opposition to Cetus, a decentralized change, which netted the hackers $223 million; the breach in opposition to Balancer, a protocol constructed on the Ethereum blockchain, which resulted in a lack of $128 million; and the one in opposition to the crypto change Phemex, the place cybercriminals stole greater than $73 million.
Cybercriminals concentrating on crypto exchanges and different DeFi initiatives usually are not slowing down. In 2024, hackers stole $2.2 billion in crypto, whereas the 12 months earlier than, in 2023, the overall was $2 billion.
