Crypto-related crime has reached $2.47 billion in the first half of 2025, already surpassing the total figure for all of 2024. Hackers increasingly shift their focus from centralized exchanges to individual users’ wallets, according to new data from CertiK and Chainalysis.

The record-breaking $1.5 billion Bybit hack, attributed by the FBI to North Korea, has amplified concerns about on-chain security. Analysts say it marks not only the largest theft in crypto history but also a clear sign that cybercrime operations targeting digital assets have become fully industrialized.

Personal Wallets Take the Hit

For the first time, personal crypto wallets account for over 23% of total funds stolen, signaling a major pivot toward decentralized, less-defended targets. Security experts warn that the lack of internal SOC (Security Operations Center) infrastructure around self-custody wallets is leaving individual users increasingly exposed.

Unlike the smart contract exploits that dominated previous years, the majority of recent thefts now stem from private key compromises, phishing attacks, and interface-level breaches, methods that directly exploit end users rather than protocol vulnerabilities.

Rising Prices Amplify Every Breach

Analysts note that the surge in crypto prices has inflated the dollar value of every successful hack. “In a bull market, every stolen private key becomes more valuable the next month,” Chainalysis observed, linking the scale of thefts directly to the market’s overall valuation.

The $2.47 billion figure from CertiK includes large-scale wallet drains, bridge exploits, and identity-based social engineering scams, and many of which were AI-assisted.

AI-Driven Cybercrime Becomes the New Normal

Cybersecurity firms report a surge in AI-powered fraud, including deepfakes, multilingual phishing bots, and cloned interfaces that mimic popular wallet apps and exchanges. Europol has warned that automation and generative AI are “tilting the psychological battlefield in favor of attackers,” making scams more convincing and more scalable than ever.

Bitcoin (BTC) remains the most lucrative target in dollar terms, as attackers focus on fewer but higher-value wallets. Meanwhile, Solana (SOL) and other altcoin ecosystems have seen a sharp increase in phishing campaigns and wallet drains, reflecting their growing user bases.

Data from multiple analytics platforms suggest that the risk landscape is shifting: fewer code bugs, more human errors. Malicious browser extensions, fake approval prompts, and stolen recovery phrases have become leading causes of losses. Even software repositories like Npm have been compromised this year, showing how deep the supply chain threat runs.

Industry at a Crossroads

Despite improvements in exchange security, experts warn that 2025 could set an all-time record for crypto thefts if trends continue. As decentralized finance expands and self-custody grows, users themselves are becoming the last line of defense.

“The attack surface is no longer just protocols — it’s people,” one analyst noted. “On-chain security now starts and ends with the end user.”