The cryptocurrency landscape has been rocked by a dramatic surge in stolen funds during the first half of 2025, with nearly $2.5 billion worth of cryptocurrencies lost across 290 incidents. This staggering figure, revealed in CertiK’s latest Hack3d report, has already surpassed the total losses recorded for the entirety of 2024. The relentless wave of exploits underscores a rapidly evolving threat landscape, demanding heightened vigilance from both users and platforms in the digital asset space.
Record-Breaking Losses in H1 2025
The first six months of 2025 have witnessed an alarming escalation in cryptocurrency losses, totaling nearly $2.5 billion across 290 separate incidents. This figure already exceeds the entire sum recorded for all of 2024, signaling a significant deterioration in crypto security. After accounting for returned and frozen funds, the net losses stand at $2.29 billion, surpassing last year’s adjusted total of $1.98 billion, indicating a stark reality for the digital asset market.
Top Attack Vectors Fueling the Surge
CertiK’s report identifies compromised wallets as the primary culprit, accounting for the largest share of losses at over $1.7 billion across 34 incidents. Phishing attacks followed as a pervasive threat, siphoning more than $410 million in 132 cases. Code vulnerabilities also contributed significantly, leading to losses exceeding $283 million across 114 incidents, highlighting diverse and persistent attack vectors targeting the crypto ecosystem.
Major Incidents Drive Substantial Losses
A significant portion of this year’s staggering losses, approximately 72% or $1.78 billion, can be attributed to just two large-scale incidents. These include the Bybit hack in the first quarter and the Cetus protocol exploit in the second quarter. Excluding these two massive breaches, the total losses for the first half of 2025 would have been considerably lower, around $690 million, underscoring the disproportionate impact of high-value attacks.
Quarterly Breakdown Reveals Shifting Trends
The first quarter of 2025 bore the brunt of the losses, accounting for $1.67 billion, more than double the $801 million recorded in Q2. While the overall pace of attacks slowed in the second quarter, several major incidents still contributed to substantial losses. Phishing emerged as the most widespread attack vector in Q2, responsible for over $395 million in losses across 52 incidents, indicating a shift in preferred methods by malicious actors.
Ethereum and Bitcoin: Primary Targets
Ethereum emerged as the most targeted blockchain in the first half of 2025, suffering losses exceeding $1.58 billion across 164 incidents. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, came in second, with over $373 million lost across 10 incidents. This concentration of attacks on the two largest blockchain networks highlights their perceived value and liquidity, making them prime targets for sophisticated cybercriminals.
Recovered Funds and Ongoing Challenges
CertiK’s report noted that $187 million in stolen funds were successfully returned in the first half of the year, bringing the adjusted total losses to just over $2.28 billion. A significant portion of this recovery, $180 million, occurred in Q2 alone, demonstrating improved efforts in asset tracing and recovery. However, despite these efforts, the sheer volume of unrecovered funds underscores the persistent challenges in combating crypto crime.
Broader Landscape: TRM Labs’ Perspective
CertiK’s findings align with a separate mid-year analysis conducted by blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs. TRM Labs estimated total crypto losses at $2.1 billion across 75 incidents during the same period. Their report further highlighted that the majority of these losses were linked to infrastructure-level breaches, such as private key thefts and front-end hijacks, reinforcing the critical need for robust security measures at every layer of the crypto ecosystem.
