Cybercriminals have stolen $2.7 billion worth of crypto this year, a new record for cryptocurrency theft, according to blockchain monitoring companies.
2025 saw dozens of crypto heists again, hitting several cryptocurrency exchanges and other web3 and decentralized finance (DeFi) projects. The biggest hack by far was the breach of Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange Bybit, where hackers stole approximately $1.4 billion worth of crypto coins. Blockchain analytics firms, as well as the FBI, accused North Korean government hackers – the most prolific group to target crypto in recent years – of this massive heist.
This was the largest known crypto booty of all time, and one of the largest financial heists in human history. Before the Bybit hack, the largest crypto thefts netted hackers $624 million and $611 million in the Ronin Network and Poly Network breaches in 2022, respectively.
Cryptocurrency monitoring companies Chainalysis and TRM Labs both estimate that a total of $2.7 billion in crypto will be stolen by 2025, based on data shared with TechCrunch. Chainalysis also tracked another $700,000 stolen from individual crypto wallets, the company said.
De.Fi, the web3 security company that powers the RIGHT database which tracks crypto thefts, and also had an estimated $2.7 billion in stolen and hacked crypto coins last year.
As usual, North Korean government hackers were the most successful crypto thieves in 2025, having stolen at least $2 billion, according to Chainalysis and Elliptic, which estimate that Kim Jong Un’s hackers have stolen around $6 billion since 2017. North Korea uses crypto thefts to finance its approved nuclear weapons program.
Other major crypto hacks this year included those against Cetusa decentralized exchange, which netted the hackers $223 million; against the infringement Balancera protocol built on the Ethereum blockchain, which resulted in a $128 million loss; and those against the crypto exchange Phemexwhere cybercriminals have stolen more than $73 million.
Cybercriminals targeting crypto exchanges and other DeFi projects are not slowing down. By 2024, Hackers have stolen $2.2 billion worth of cryptowhile the year before, in 2023, the total was $2 billion.
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