Crypto Hack Losses Jump 46% in 2025: SlowMist Report

TheNewsCryptoPublished on 2025-12-31Last updated on 2025-12-31

Abstract

In 2025, crypto hack losses surged by 46% to $2.935 billion compared to $2.013 billion in 2024, despite a significant drop in the number of incidents from 410 to 200. The DeFi sector remained the most targeted, with 126 security incidents resulting in $649 million in losses. A major hack on centralized exchange Bybit alone accounted for $1.46 billion of the total $1.809 billion lost in CEX breaches. Phishing attacks became more sophisticated and harder to detect. Notably, $387 million of the stolen funds were recovered or frozen across 18 incidents.

SlowMist, a blockchain security firm, has recently released its 2025 Blockchain Security and AML Annual Report. The report vigorously mentioned the various security challenges the crypto industry faced over the year.

As per the report, the total value stolen from crypto hacks increased by around 46% in 2025 as compared to 2024. It is important to note that crypto theft had been more destructive by the first half of this year than in 2024.

Chainalysis also released a report this year that mentioned that this year showed a significantly steeper trajectory into the end of the first half than any events that occurred in the previous years.

Till now, this year’s security incidents have resulted in $2.935 billion, which was $2.013 billion in losses in 2024. Although the number of incidents has dropped since last year, the total amount of losses increased, indicating a trend of fewer but large-scale scams.

The single incident leading to massive loss

In 2025, there were a total of 200 cases, which in 2024 stood at 410 cases. The DeFi sector was the most targeted sector, with 126 security cases, which equalled about 63% of all hacks and total losses of about $649 million. This shows a 37% and 67% decrease from last year’s incident, which stood at 339, resulting in $1.029 billion.

At the same time, centralised exchange (CEX) platforms noted 22 incidents accounting for $1.809 billion in losses as a result of the Bybit hack. This was the single incident that resulted in a massive loss of $1.46 billion.

However, phishing was one of the most active schemes evolving in 2025, as per the SlowMist. Also, the scams have become very difficult to detect, as malicious actors are not relying on a single method of attack to deceive victims.

Furthermore, there were 18 incidents in this year in which the lost funds were recovered or frozen. These cases resulted in taking the total stolen funds to $1.95 billion, of which around $387 million was successfully returned or frozen.

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