Crypto theft hits record $2.7 billion in 2025
Hackers stole more than $2.7 billion in cryptocurrency in 2025, setting a new annual high, based on estimates from blockchain-tracking firms including Chainalysis and TRM Labs. The losses came from attacks on centralized exchanges, decentralized finance (DeFi) projects, and other Web3 platforms.
The largest single incident involved Bybit, a Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange, which disclosed a breach that drained about $1.5 billion worth of Ethereum (ETH) from one of its wallets. Bybit said the unauthorized transfer occurred during a wallet operation and told customers their assets were backed, even as the company worked with security partners to trace the funds.
U.S. authorities later tied the Bybit theft to North Korean cyber actors. In a public notice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said the group it tracks as “TraderTraitor” was responsible for the $1.5 billion theft and had already begun converting and dispersing the stolen assets across thousands of blockchain addresses.
The 2025 total builds on a multi-year pattern of large-scale crypto breaches, with industry trackers citing continued pressure on security across exchanges and smart-contract systems as digital-asset activity expands.
