Record $2.1 Billion Lost to Hackers in the First Half of 2025: Crypto Industry Faces Urgent Security Calls

During the first half of 2025, cybercriminals stole $2.1 billion from the cryptocurrency sector, according to a report from TRM Labs.

Infrastructure attacks, which accounted for over 80% of the losses, involved theft of private keys, seed phrases, and front-end spoofing. Cybercriminals often employed social engineering or insider assistance. The report highlights that the average damage from such incidents is ten times greater than from other types of hacks.

Additionally, 12% of the losses were attributed to vulnerabilities in DeFi protocols, including attacks utilizing flash loans and reentrancy attacks.

The total losses over the first six months of 2025 nearly reached the total for all of 2024, surpassing the record set in the first half of 2022 by 10%. A significant portion of this increase was due to the February hack of Bybit, which resulted in a theft of $1.5 billion and has been linked to North Korean hackers, according to analysts from Arkham. This incident raised the average damage per attack to $30 million—double that of the previous year.

TRM Labs estimates that North Korean-affiliated groups were responsible for stealing $1.6 billion, which represents 70% of the total for the first half of the year. The report also highlights a June incident involving the hacking of the Iranian exchange Nobitex, for which the pro-Israeli group Gonjeshke Darande claimed responsibility and released the platform’s source code.

Analysts are urging projects to enhance their security measures. Recommendations include implementing multi-factor authentication, improving cold storage protocols, and addressing insider threats. The report emphasizes the importance of collaboration among law enforcement agencies across different countries and inter-industry coordination.

«The record thefts in the first half of 2025 serve as a call to action for the establishment of a collective and strategically sound security system,» concluded TRM Labs.

In the first quarter, cybercriminals stole $1.64 billion in 40 incidents.

In May, the losses in the crypto industry from hacks totaled $244 million.