Damages incurred by participants in the crypto industry from the actions of scammers and hackers increased by 34% compared to 2024.
Due to hacks and fraud involving cryptocurrencies, more than $4 billion was lost in 2025, according to analysts at PeckShield. According to their data, this is 34.2% more than in 2024, when $3.01 billion worth of cryptocurrencies were stolen.
The total damage in 2025 exceeded $4.04 billion. Of this, $2.67 billion was lost to hacks (a 24.2% increase year-on-year) and $1.37 billion was lost to fraud (a 64.2% increase).
The report highlights a strategic shift: there is a growing number of thefts involving social engineering techniques (psychological tricks and manipulation that force victims to disclose confidential information that attackers can use to steal funds). Analysts attributed 12% of losses in 2025 to incidents involving such methods.
Hacks accounted for 66% of the total damage, the most serious being the theft of $1.4 billion from the Bybit exchange in February last year. Another 22% of losses were due to scams, including “rug pulls” (when developers withdraw liquidity at the peak of the price) and pseudo-crypto investments.
Another important change was the increase in the share of centralized services among the affected platforms. While in 2023 they accounted for just over 35%, in 2024 they already accounted for about 45%, and in 2025 — over 70%.
Over the course of the year, only about $334.9 million of the stolen funds were frozen or returned. PeckShield noted a decrease compared to 2024, when $488.5 million was recovered.
PeckShield's assessment is based only on officially confirmed and recorded cases and amounts of damage. For example, experts at Chaianalisys, by analyzing the relationships and transactions in wallets associated with fraudsters, estimate the damage for the past year to be much higher — $17 billion.
