Crypto scams break records after market capitalization peaks
In the first half of 2025, the total damage from Crypto scams reached 2.1 billion USD – the highest ever, surpassing the record of 2 billion USD during the same period in 2022 and more than the total for 2024 combined. Among them:
- Over 80% came from infrastructure attacks: stealing private keys, seed phrases, or user interface attacks.
- 12% due to smart contract vulnerabilities: such as uncollateralized loan vulnerabilities, withdrawal bugs allowing multiple withdrawals before balance updates, ... - inherent weaknesses of DeFi projects if not properly maintained.
- The remainder involves hacks of communication channels, impersonating official project accounts to trick users into sending tokens to participate in fake events.
Notably, crypto scams have not only been for personal gain but have also served national objectives: North Korean hackers use Crypto to steal funds to evade sanctions, finance nuclear weapons; or Israel attacking Iran's exchanges as a form of international punishment.
