Cryptocurrency phishing losses dropped 83% in 2025, falling to approximately $84 million from nearly $494 million in 2024. The decline in signature phishing incidents masks a troubling shift toward sophisticated attacks targeting high-net-worth individuals.
What Happened: Attack Patterns
The annual report from Scam Sniffer, a Web3 security firm, revealed phishing activity peaked during the third quarter with $31 million in losses, coinciding with Ethereum's rally toward $5,000 amid institutional demand.
Fraud patterns tracked cryptocurrency market volatility throughout the year.
In November, victim numbers fell 42% while total losses surged 137%, indicating attackers abandoned mass-market approaches for targeted "whale hunting" operations.
The average loss per victim climbed to $1,225 during that period. Attackers exploited Ethereum's Pectra upgrade, specifically leveraging EIP-7702 to bundle multiple malicious operations into single signatures, resulting in over $2.5 million in losses during August alone.
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Why It Matters: Evolving Threats
The shift reflects criminal groups pivoting from low-value spam campaigns to sophisticated attacks on wealthy cryptocurrency holders.
Technological upgrades within the cryptocurrency industry introduced new vulnerabilities that attackers quickly weaponized.
Scam Sniffer noted the tracked losses likely represent only a fraction of total damages, as the firm monitored only on-chain signature scams and excluded losses from clipboard malware, social engineering and direct private key compromises.
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