2025 Marks Worst Year on Record for Crypto Theft as Losses Exceed $4 Billion

The scale of crypto-related theft reached unprecedented levels in 2025, with losses exceeding $4.04 billion, according to PeckShield’s annual security report.

This escalation underlines the growing sophistication of attacks and the increasing security challenges facing the cryptocurrency industry.

2025 Crypto Security Report Reveals Rising Losses and Declining Asset Recovery

2025’s figure marks a 34.2% increase compared to the $3.01 billion stolen in 2024 and a rise of approximately 55% from 2023’s $2.61 billion.

Despite a decrease in the total number of crypto-related security incidents in 2025, the overall value of stolen assets increased sharply. This indicates a shift toward fewer but higher-impact attacks.

“2025 has witnessed a record-breaking year for crypto-related theft, driven primarily by systemic vulnerabilities in centralized infrastructure and a strategic shift toward targeted social engineering,” PeckShield wrote.

The Crypto Security Annual Report showed that exploits remained the dominant attack vector, accounting for 66% of total losses. These incidents, often involving smart contract flaws, compromised private keys, or infrastructure breaches, resulted in approximately $2.67 billion in stolen assets, representing a 24.2% year-over-year increase.

Scams accounted for the second-largest share of losses. PeckShield reported that $1.37 billion was lost to scam-related activity in 2025, marking a 64.2% increase compared to the previous year.

The report also highlighted the growing role of social engineering techniques, including phishing and impersonation, which accounted for 12% of total losses. Unlike technical exploits, these attacks primarily rely on manipulating users rather than exploiting weaknesses in blockchain code.

Recovery efforts lagged behind the scale of losses. Only about $334.9 million worth of stolen crypto was recovered or frozen in 2025, significantly lower than the $488.5 million recovered in 2024. The decline reflects the growing sophistication of laundering techniques.

PeckShield Lists 2025’s Largest Crypto Heists

The report outlined the ten largest crypto-related thefts recorded in 2025. Losses from these cases ranged from tens of millions of dollars to well over $1 billion. Notable incidents include:

• Bybit: The largest theft on record in the crypto industry, with North Korea’s Lazarus Group stealing over $1.4 billion from the exchange.
• Libra Token: A high-profile rug pull that resulted in investor losses of around $251 million.
• Cetus Protocol: This decentralized exchange operating on the Sui blockchain lost over $200 million in a single attack.
• Nobitex: Iran’s largest cryptocurrency exchange reportedly suffered losses of approximately $81.7 million after Gonjeshke Darande (Predatory Sparrow) exploited it.

Meanwhile, monthly data revealed that losses were unevenly distributed throughout the year. February was the worst month for crypto theft in 2025, with $1.77 billion lost, primarily due to the Bybit hack. By contrast, October recorded the lowest monthly losses of the year, with crypto theft totaling approximately $21.6 million. Yet, the figure climbed in November.

These trends appear to be carrying over into 2026. Just 13 days into the new year, the crypto industry has already fallen victim to two major exploits. The first was the Truebit exploit, followed by a social engineering attack that targeted users of the investment platform Betterment.