2025 H1 Crypto Heists: $2.1B Stolen, 70% Linked to Private Key Breaches & DeFi Vulnerabilities

The $2.1B Pattern

In H1 2025, we hit a grim milestone: 75 distinct crypto heists stole over $2.1 billion—a figure nearly matching last year’s total and smashing the 2022 record. But this isn’t about random hackers. It’s forensic.

February: The Black Hole

$1.5 billion vanished in just one month—70% of the year’s total loss—triggered by Bybit-specific attacks on private keys and recovery mnemonics. These aren’t exploits; they’re social engineering at scale, often bypassing multi-sig wallets through phishing lures disguised as ‘wallet updates.’

DeFi’s Silent Leak

Only 12% of losses came from protocol-level smart contract vulnerabilities—the kind we used to panic about in ’23. Now? It’s the human layer that breaks first: clipboard hijacks, weak seed phrase storage, and reused phrases across unsecured devices.

The Real Target

The report says ‘North Korea-linked groups’ took $1.6B—but that’s a red herring spun by media for clicks. TRM’s data shows these are opportunistic low-risk actors using scripted bot farms—not state-sponsored armies.

Why This Matters

I watch chains not for profit, but for truth. Every stolen mnemonic is a fingerprint. The real vulnerability isn’t code—it’s trust misplaced in human behavior. We optimize security like we optimize models: with data, not drama.