In 2025, dozens of cryptocurrency thefts occurred, targeting many cryptocurrency exchanges and other web3 and DeFi projects.
The biggest attack so far has been a break-in on the Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange Bybit, where hackers stole about $1.4 billion in cryptocurrency.
This is the largest cryptocurrency theft ever known, and one of the largest financial thefts in human history. Before the Bybit hacking, major cryptocurrency thefts brought creditors $624 million and $611 million in attacks on the Ronin and Poly networks in 2022.
According to data shared with TechCrunch, cryptocurrency monitoring companies Chainalysis and TRM Labs are both estimated to have stolen a total of $2.7 billion in the cryptocurrency sector by 2025. Chainalysis also added that it had tracked $700,000 stolen from personal cryptocurrency wallets.
De.Fi, a web3 security company that operates the REKT database that tracks cryptocurrency thefts, also estimates that the amount of cryptocurrency stolen and hacked this year is up to 2.7 billion USD.
Other notable cyber attacks on cryptocurrency this year include an attack on Cetus, a decentralized exchange, that earned traders $223 million; a breakthrough into Balancer, a protocol built on the Ethereum block chain, that caused $128 million in losses; and an attack on the Phemex cryptocurrency exchange, where cybercriminals stole more than $73 million.
Cybercriminals targeting cryptocurrency exchanges and other DeFi projects have not slowed down. In 2024, hackers stole 2.2 billion USD in cryptocurrency, while the previous year, in 2023, the total amount of money stolen was 2 billion USD.
