- Assets stolen from crypto services are on pace to reach record levels in 2025.
- Personal wallets represent a growing target.
- Chainalysis attributes the rise in crime to greater adoption and price increases.
Digital thugs are on pace to steal more from crypto services than ever before in 2025, says crypto security firm Chainalysis in its 2025 mid-year crypto crime update report.
Over $2.1 billion in crypto has been stolen from crypto services in the first half of 2025, more than the entirety of 2024. If this trend continues, stolen funds from services could surpass $4 billion, breaking the record set in 2022 of $3.7 billion.
But will the trend continue? After all, $1.5 billion of that was due to North Korea’s hack of Bybit.
“It’s a reasonable extrapolation given the trend lines and structural factors like growing adoption and higher asset prices,” Eric Jardine, a cybercrimes research manager at Chainalysis, told DL News.
“The underlying structural factors — growing adoption, more services, more individuals, and higher asset prices — mean that a compromise today results in higher losses.”
This warning comes as the crypto industry is awash with bullish sentiment.
Bitcoin just hit a record high, altcoin prices are on the rise, institutions are pouring into digital assets, and US President Donald Trump is seemingly about to rubber stamp new crypto laws — and that will likely embolden criminals.
“As people adopt crypto more, you’re going to have more use cases, more services, and more personal wallets, which creates a larger victim pool,” Jardine said.
Trends
Chainalysis developed new methods of tracking thefts from personal wallets, an underreported category of crypto crime. This revealed that personal wallet compromises make up a growing share of ecosystem theft, accounting for about 23% of all stolen fund activity.
The report highlights multiple factors contributing to this trend. For one, the growing number of crypto holders and the increased value held in personal wallets makes for a larger attack vector.
Services have continued to improve their security practices, making individuals a perceivably easier target.
Hackers have developed more sophisticated techniques for targeting individuals, potentially driven by AI tools.
Looking at the breakdown of assets stolen reveals that Bitcoin thefts account for the majority of stolen value, although the number of victims is increasing on other blockchains.
“The forward-looking implication is that, if the value of native assets increases, the value compromised from personal wallets will also likely rise,” the report states.
Laundering stolen crypto
How did hackers launder the illicit funds?
Hackers targeting services turned to so-called crypto bridges and mixers to hide and move around funds.
Those targeting personal wallets tended to send stolen funds to centralised exchanges, which suggests that these actors are less sophisticated than those attacking services. Centralised exchanges typically run identity checks on their customers.
Even though the adoption of low-fee blockchains such as Solana and the various layer 2s has driven the overall cost of laundering transactions down, threat actors do not mind paying a premium rate.
However, not all stolen funds are laundered immediately. Personal wallet compromises have increasingly remained onchain, with many criminals keeping large amounts of assets on attacker controlled addresses.
Risk mitigation
The report explains that this trend showcases the need for service providers to have tight security measures, regular code audits, and employee screening processes to detect social engineering attacks.
For individuals, Jardine highlighted the importance of conducting research into the project before investing and spreading assets into multiple wallets.
“Skepticism about what’s being offered and due diligence when it comes to using specific services is about all you can probably do,” said Jardine. “And then, even if you’re using legitimate services, you still might run into problems.”
He explained that when interacting with smart contracts, it is unwise to keep all of one’s assets in one wallet.
“Concentration is not good. So true to the ethos of crypto, decentralisation is ideal.”
Zachary Rampone is a DeFi correspondent at DL News. Have a tip? Contact him at zrampone@dlnews.com.
