Crypto Thefts, Hacks Have Already Topped Last Year’s Tally

The $1.5 billion hack of the exchange Bybit attributed to North Korea’s Lazarus Group has resulted in more funds being swiped from digital platforms already this year than in all of 2024.

In total, $2.17 billion was stolen from crypto services and individual wallets through June, according to blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis.

While the Bybit attack in February was the largest ever crypto exploit recorded, personal wallet compromises now represent a growing share of total ecosystem theft. Attacks targeting individual users have made up around 23% of all stolen fund activity this year.

“It’s sort of fair to say there’s a high degree of technical sophistication in these hacks,” said Eric Jardine, cybercrimes research lead at Chainalysis. “You can trick people through phishing attacks into exposing private keys, but it’s not the same as having it exposed in some other way.”

Coinbase Global Inc. has estimated that the May attack of its exchange might cost the company as much as $400 million for remediation efforts and customer reimbursements.

Beyond the cyber attacks, criminals are increasingly using physical violence in “wrench attacks” and coercion to access funds, and holders of digital assets are employing tactics like hiring bodyguards to ensure their protection. Physical threats are of more concern to crypto investors because unlike in traditional financial institutions, anonymous and instantaneous transfers on crypto networks allow funds in digital assets to be drained with a low chance of recovery for victims.

“Obviously if you get control of a private key, that’s the end of the story,” Jardine said. “And the more security layers that get put into place by crypto services — be it in the DeFi space or the sort of centralized ecosystem — the more sophisticated the bad actors have to become.”