The year 2025 brought significant losses to the cryptocurrency sector due to hacking attacks. According to a new report by analytics firm Chainalysis, investors and companies lost approximately 3.4 billion dollars — the highest figure since 2022. However, the damage was not spread evenly across the industry, as most losses came from just a few exceptionally large incidents.

Hackers focused primarily on large crypto exchanges, services, and wallets holding substantial amounts of funds. This strategy is increasingly referred to as “big game hunting.”

Three Attacks Defined the Entire Year

Nearly 70 percent of total losses stemmed from just three attacks. The largest was the hack of the Bybit exchange, which resulted in roughly 1.4 billion dollars being stolen. According to Chainalysis, these attacks were up to a thousand times larger than an average incident.

“It only takes one or two massive breaches to make an entire year look extreme,” said Andrew Fierman of Chainalysis, adding that similar scenarios cannot be ruled out in the future.

Personal Wallet Attacks Are More Frequent but Less Costly

Hackers are increasingly targeting personal crypto wallets and credential theft. While these attacks accounted for nearly half of losses in 2024, their share dropped to about one fifth this year. Without the Bybit incident, the proportion would have been significantly higher.

Total losses from wallet-related attacks fell to around 713 million dollars, down from 1.5 billion last year, despite a growing number of incidents.

DeFi Learns Its Lessons and Attacks Decline

A positive trend is visible in DeFi. The total value locked in decentralized finance projects has reached approximately 119 billion dollars, more than double the 2023 low. Despite this growth, the number of hacks has not increased significantly.

Improved security practices and a shift in hacker focus toward centralized platforms and end users explain this development.

North Korea Strikes Less Often but With Greater Impact

North Korean hacking groups were responsible for crypto thefts totaling 2.02 billion dollars. While the number of attacks did not rise, their sophistication and impact did.

These groups increasingly rely on long-term infiltration strategies, including posing as IT professionals or exploiting vulnerabilities among third-party vendors.

What This Means for Everyday Users

The crypto ecosystem is not inherently more dangerous than before, but risks are unevenly distributed. Large exchanges and individual wallets remain prime targets. For users, security awareness and diversification remain essential.

Source:

https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/crypto-hacking-stolen-funds-2026/

https://defillama.com

https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-3-4-billion-losses-2025-wallet-hacks