Source: Cointelegraph Original: "{title}"

In the first quarter of 2025, over $2 billion was lost due to cryptocurrency hacking attacks.

According to a report shared with Cointelegraph by the crypto cybersecurity company Hacken, nearly $1.63 billion in losses were attributed to access control vulnerabilities in the first quarter of 2025 alone. Anmol Jain, Vice President of Investigations at crypto forensics firm AMLBot, told Cointelegraph that this unusually high figure is primarily due to the recent hacking attack on the crypto exchange Bybit.

This data is similar to a recent report shared by crypto cybersecurity company PeckShield. The competing company's report (excluding scams) indicated that the total amount lost to cryptocurrency hacking attacks in the first quarter of 2025 was $1.6 billion.

Total losses from cryptocurrency hacking attacks in the first quarter of 2025 (by category). Source: Hacken

A report from the end of February revealed that the North Korean hackers responsible for the $140 million Bybit hack control over 11,000 cryptocurrency wallets used for money laundering. The scale and complexity of these hacking activities are increasing, indicating a growing involvement of state actors from North Korea.

This hacking incident had a significant impact on the numbers for this quarter. This impact is even more pronounced when considering that the total losses from cryptocurrency hacking attacks throughout 2024 amounted to $2.25 billion. Hacken shared an important lesson in this regard: "Protecting digital assets requires more than just ensuring the security of on-chain code—the entire infrastructure, from the front-end interface to internal processes, must also be fortified, as any weak link is enough to compromise the entire system."

No one is immune

Hacken's report emphasizes that in recent months, "even the largest centralized and decentralized platforms have not been spared, falling victim to operational errors, access control vulnerabilities, and in some cases, social engineering attacks." There were no significant new types of vulnerabilities this quarter, "but rather the continued effectiveness of existing attack methods."

The report further notes that while smart contract vulnerabilities remain an issue, "most of the losses now stem from human errors, process failures, or permission system problems." It also stated that this is the third consecutive quarter where the top-ranked vulnerabilities are related to multi-signature wallet attacks.

The Bybit hacking incident involved the front end of the Safe wallet. Previous hacking incidents involving the implementation or management of multi-signature wallets include the Radiant Capital attack in the fourth quarter of 2024 and the WazirX attack in the third quarter of 2024.

The cryptocurrency scam industry has also led to massive losses, with Hacken's data showing that phishing scams caused losses of $96.37 million, while "rug pull" scams resulted in losses of $300 million. Jain also pointed out that an increasing number of crypto scams have become an industry: "The most concerning trend is the professionalization of scam networks, where criminals operate in a startup-like efficient manner, including 'training programs,' internal quotas, and multi-stage money laundering schemes using platforms like Huione Pay."

This statement follows a report from mid-January, which mentioned that Huione (referred to as "the largest illegal online marketplace in history") reported a 51% increase in monthly inflows within just six months. This growth occurred after the platform launched a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar and provided financial services for illegal activities.

Anmol noted, "Most 'pig slaughter' scams originate from Southeast Asian cybercrime gangs," with many based in Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos, and some also located in Thailand. The operators of these gangs typically "employ" victims of human trafficking from India, Nepal, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

Related: Avalanche stablecoin grows 70% to $2.5 billion, but AVAX demand lacks DeFi deployment.

免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。