Crypto Scams and Hacks Surge to $370M in January: CertiK

TheNewsCryptoPublished on 2026-02-02Last updated on 2026-02-02

Abstract

In January, cryptocurrency scams and hacks surged to $370.3 million, marking the highest monthly loss in 11 months and a fourfold increase from January of the previous year. The majority of the stolen funds came from a single social engineering scam that resulted in a $284 million loss. Phishing attacks accounted for over $311.3 million of the total. The month's largest incidents included a $28.9 million hack on Step Finance, a $26.4 million exploit of the Truebit protocol due to a smart contract bug, and a $13.3 million attack on SwapNet. Overall, 16 major hacks were recorded, causing $86.01 million in losses—a slight decrease from the previous year but a 13% rise from December. The figures represent a 214% increase from December's losses and highlight a significant escalation in crypto security breaches.

The total value of stolen cryptocurrencies via exploits and scams extended to $370.3 million last month, the biggest monthly figure hit in 11 months and around a fourfold increase from January of last year.

CertiK, the biggest Web3 security service provider, stated on January 31 that out of 40 scam incidents that happened in January, the major portion of the total value stolen came from one victim that lost about $284 million because of a social engineering scam.

Around over $370 million stolen was accounted for by phishing scams, which stole over $311.3 million over the month. This month’s figure is the biggest loss, followed by the Bybit hack in February 2025.

In February 2025, the hackers swept off around $1.5 billion overall over the month, a major portion of which came from the $1.4 billion hack on crypto exchange Bybit. The recent amount marks over a 277% surge from January 2025, when attackers swept in and stole $98 million.

The Biggest Surge

CertiK also mentioned that it is also a 214% surge from December, witnessing $117.8 million lost to crypto theft. The blockchain security and data analytics company, PeckShield, revealed on February 1 that the hack of Step Finance in the last month of January was the biggest for the month.

Attackers swept $28.9 million in the attack on the decentralised finance portfolio tracker, where a lot of its treasury wallets were risked, having over 261,000 Solana (SOL) taken. After this, the biggest exploit for the month was the $26.4 million attack on the Truebit protocol on January 8, when a bug in a smart contract permitted an attacker to mint tokens almost for free. This also banged the price of the Truebit (TRU) token.

PeckShield also highlighted the $13.3 million hack on liquidity provider SwapNet on January 26 and the $7 million hack against the blockchain protocol Saga on January 21. The firm mentioned that there were around 16 hacks overall in January, equating to $86.01 million in losses, a 1.42% fall from a year ago, but over a 13% rise from December.

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