A new record has been broken in the amount of cryptocurrency stolen in a single year. In 2025, at least $2.7 billion in crypto assets passed into the hands of cybercriminals. The primary source of the attacks is North Korea.
2025 was quite a rollercoaster for the crypto world. With even the most seemingly reliable cryptocurrencies experiencing drops, and the industry drifting further away from the decentralized structure that is one of the technology’s fundamental promises, a year that was not very desirable for the sector is being left behind. As if all this were not enough, the security side continues to be a major problem. Just like in the previous two years, billions of dollars in crypto assets were stolen by cybercriminals in 2025.
According to reports published this week by blockchain analysis companies Chainalysis, TRM Labs, and De.Fi, 2025 has been recorded as the worst year ever in terms of cryptocurrency theft. The total amount of crypto assets stolen by cybercriminals throughout the year reached $2.7 billion. This amount, which exceeds the $2.2 billion stolen in 2023 and the figures from 2024, points to an alarming acceleration in crypto crimes.
More Than Half of Stolen Crypto Goes to North Korea
One of the most striking aspects of this increase is that a large portion of the attacks were carried out by North Korea-linked hacker groups. According to the report, approximately 60% of the crypto assets stolen in 2025, equating to about $1.6 billion, passed into the hands of North Korea-backed cybercriminals.
Moreover, this might even be an optimistic analysis. Because when attacks thought to be linked to North Korea—though not definitively verified—are taken into account, it is stated that the amount seized by North Korean cybercriminals exceeds $2 billion.
Andrew Fierman, responsible for national security intelligence at Chainalysis, summarizes why cryptocurrencies are so attractive to North Korea: Crypto assets offer a unique revenue source for sanctioned regimes thanks to their 24/7 global accessibility and relatively anonymous structure.
$1.5 Billion Lost in a Single Attack
The largest crypto attack of 2025 occurred in February. The Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange Bybit lost approximately $1.5 billion in digital assets as a result of a sophisticated attack. The FBI announced that a hacker group known as TraderTraitor (Jade Sleet), known to be affiliated with North Korea, was behind this attack. This event drew attention both for being one of the highest crypto amounts stolen in a single attack and for the scale of the exchange targeted.
Another critical point distinguishing 2025 from previous years is that despite a decrease in the number of attacks, the total stolen amount has increased. According to Chainalysis, North Korean hackers carried out fewer known attacks this year. However, because the platforms they targeted were larger and more critical, the gain obtained from a single attack rose significantly. This situation shows that hacker groups have both increased their technical competence and started to choose more strategic targets.
In addition to the Bybit attack, other major breaches shook the crypto sector throughout the year. In May, the decentralized exchange Cetus lost $223 million as a result of exploiting a vulnerability in a common math library used in liquidity calculations. In November, the Ethereum-based Balancer protocol suffered a loss of $128 million due to a sensitive rounding error in its smart contract code. In January, the Singapore-based Phemex exchange had over $73 million in assets stolen as a result of wallets on 16 different blockchains being drained.
Security experts agree that the crypto industry can no longer be content with reactive measures. It is emphasized that smart contract audits must be tightened, on-chain asset tracking must be strengthened, and cybersecurity must be taken more seriously, especially in Decentralized Finance (DeFi) platforms. Otherwise, it seems inevitable that this record broken in 2025 will be surpassed by new and larger records in the coming years.
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