Cryptocurrency hackers have targeted enormous crypto entities and personal cryptocurrency wallets this year, resulting in $3.4 billion in cryptocurrency losses in 2025 – the most since 2022.
Just three hacks in 2025, led by the $1.4 billion hack of cryptocurrency exchange Bybit, accounted for 69% of all losses from January to early December, according to a Chainalytic report released Thursday, with the largest attacks being 1,000 times larger than a typical incident.
Andrew Fierman, head of national security intelligence at Chainalytic, told Cointelegraph that while mass attacks have resulted in an augment in losses this year, it is unclear whether 2026 will follow the same pattern.
“It is difficult to predict whether the situation will worsen in 2026, as hacking attacks are characterized by very unusual phenomena – one or two major breaches may set records in a given year. However, I can say that the trend of big game hunting appears to be continuing and there is no reason to believe that the number of hacks will decline next year,” he said.
Wallet and private key compromises are a popular target
Meanwhile, Fierman said that on the other end of the spectrum, personal wallets have also become popular targets for hackers.
They accounted for 7.3% of the total value stolen in 2022 and 44% in 2024. This year it is around 20%, but excluding the Bybit hack, the total would be closer to 37%.
However, the total amount stolen from individual hacks fell from $1.5 billion in 2024 to $713 million this year, despite a nearly three-fold augment in the number of incidents compared to 2022.
“These amounts are smaller because individual personal wallets typically hold less funds than large exchange wallets that pool the funds of many users,” Fierman added.
DeFi protocols have more effective security measures
The total locked value of DeFi is approximately $119 billion, According to to the DefiLlama analytics platform, more than doubling from its 2023 lows, when it fell to below $40 billion.
However, Chainalytic said the recovery in DeFi markets has not led to a surge in hacks, which is a “clear divergence from historical trends.”
Previously, fund-heavy areas of the industry were more likely to be hacked. However, in this case, Chainalytic points to DeFi protocols implementing more effective security measures and attackers focusing on wallets and centralized services as possible causes.
“The continued lower level of DeFi hacks, even after billions of dollars have flowed back into these protocols, represents a significant change,” the Chainalytic team stated.
North Korea is becoming more and more sophisticated
North Korean hacking crews were responsible for $2.02 billion worth of stolen cryptocurrency in 2025, an additional $681 million on the 2024 total, thanks to tactics such as embedding IT workers in projects.
The analysis found that North Korean hackers carried out fewer but significantly more destructive attacks in 2025, which Chainalytic attributes to an augment in sophistication and patience as they focus more on achieving better results.
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“The regime consistently trains and develops new tactics through which their operators execute their strategies, whether by infiltrating Web3 companies as IT workers or finding exploitable access points through third-party vendors,” Fierman said.
“While the industry learns more about DPRK tactics and strengthens security measures to mitigate future risks with each breach, the DPRK is also evolving, continually attempting to find new attack vectors to continue to benefit the regime through ill-gotten gains.”
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