Hackers stole $1.67 billion in cryptocurrency in the first quarter of 2025

The first quarter of 2025 saw notable regulatory and strategic changes in the Web3 industry. The US government announced its intention to create a strategic cryptocurrency reserve, and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) formed a working group to deal with issues related to digital assets.

In parallel, the European Union completed work on technical standards for the regulation of markets in crypto assets (MiCA), aimed at strengthening control over compliance with cryptocurrency legislation. Meanwhile, the industry is recording an increase in cybercrime related to digital assets, with not only the number of incidents but also the value of stolen funds increasing.

Year-to-date losses from cryptocurrency theft amounted to $1.67 billion. For comparison, $2.4 billion was stolen in all of 2024. A significant part of the losses in 2025 were caused by the North Korean hacking group Lazarus. As a result of the attack on the crypto exchange Bybit, they withdrew assets worth $ 1.45 billion.

One of the most alarming trends in the first quarter was the increase in the number of cases of compromise of private keys. As a result of 15 incidents, attackers managed to steal $ 142 million. At the same time, only 0.38% of the stolen funds were recovered, while in the previous quarter this figure was 42.09%. February 2025 was especially indicative: not a single stolen unit of digital assets was recovered for the entire month.

The Ethereum blockchain again turned out to be the most vulnerable to attacks. In 98 recorded incidents, hackers managed to withdraw crypto assets worth $ 1.54 billion. Ethereum’s popularity in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space and the widespread use of smart contracts continue to attract the attention of attackers given the volume of funds locked in various protocols.