The string of major cryptocurrency hacks between January 1 and March 31 has already positioned 2025 to become one of the industry’s most damaging years on record in terms of theft. This remains a major drag on cryptocurrency adoption by larger institutions and is a risk crypto investors have to remain vigilant about.
Finbold’s Q1 2025 Cryptocurrency Market Report has found that as much as $1.77 billion was stolen from the community in the three-month period ending 31 March. In contrast, $1.38 billion was drained in the first six months of 2024, and attackers took a significantly lower $452 million in the first quarter of 2023.
The three biggest Q1 hacks saw the theft of $1.65 billion in crypto. The biggest attack of Q1 2025 was the draining of a Bybit cold wallet executed during a scheduled transfer to a hot wallet. The assailant made off with $1.5 billion, and the attack accounts for nearly 85% of the total value taken in the year’s opening months.
Though much smaller at $100 million, the Libra (LIBRA) rug pull is also both interesting and shocking as the meme coin was, before the crash, promoted by multiple prominent figures, including the President of Argentina Javier Milei and the founder of Barstool Sports Dave Portnoy.
Similarly, the third-biggest attack of 2025, the $50 million drain of the Infini stablecoin neobank, was doubly shocking as it involved an individual who helped develop the contract for the company, unduly retaining administrator privileges and using them to drain assets. This ‘back door’ hack is actually quite common in the software industry, and it comes as no surprise to see it now occurring in cryptocurrency.
- The ByBit Hack: Five things you need to know
- Prager Metis settles with SEC for $1.95m over FTX audit
- How to avoid buying fake gold
Do we know what the real figure is though?
As large as the Q1 losses have been, the known figures are likely far smaller than the actual amount stolen.
The $1.77 billion reported in crypto hacking incidents during Q1 2025 only reflects publicly known cases, according to Jordan Major and Diana Paluteder, co-authors of Finbold’s Q1 2025 Cryptocurrency Market Report. In reality, the total value lost is likely much higher, as many breaches go unreported or don’t disclose the full extent of financial damage. At this pace, 2025 is on track to become a record-breaking year for crypto-related security breaches.
Indeed, historical records show that the entire 2024 saw a loss of $2.2 billion, meaning that if hacks continue at the same rate as in Q1, there will be a 221.82% year-over-year (YoY) increase in the value of stolen cryptocurrency by the end of 2025.
While there is plenty of focus on institutional and indeed central bank adoption of cryptocurrencies in the financial press, this security issue will continue to impede the sector’s growth.
Security remains a drag of crypto growth
Institutions and individuals face a dilemma when deciding how to gain access to and safely store crypto assets. Self-custody remains an excellent option for some, but inherent technical challenges and security considerations may not satisfy the preferences and requirements of all investors – while existing, centralized custodial options introduce other considerable risks, as we saw with the FTX collapse.
Bitcoin seems to be the market where most money is being spent on security as this is also the aresa where we are seeing the most institutional investment activity. Hopefully advances in BTC will also spread to other areas of the crypto market.
