The crypto world had a rough start to 2025, losing over $3.1 billion to hackers in the first half of the year—that’s more than the entire year of 2024! A new report from cybersecurity firm Hacken reveals some serious issues.
The Usual Suspects and New Threats
Most of the losses (around 59%) came from access control problems. Smart contract bugs also played a part, costing around $273 million. While the huge $1.5 billion Bybit hack in February made headlines, it’s just one piece of a bigger problem: crypto is still facing major security weaknesses. Interestingly, human error and procedural mistakes are becoming bigger targets than technical flaws in the code itself.
Outdated Code and Operational Blunders
Hacken’s experts say old, outdated code is a huge problem. They point to the GMX v1 platform as a prime example. Leaving these old systems running is risky business. Operational weaknesses are also a big issue, causing around $1.83 billion in losses across both decentralized (DeFi) and centralized (CeFi) finance. The $223 million Cetus DeFi hack is a perfect example – caused by a simple coding error. Better monitoring systems could have prevented most of this loss.
AI: A Double-Edged Sword
AI is making things more complicated. Attacks involving AI have exploded—a whopping 1025% increase compared to 2023! Most of these attacks target insecure APIs. With more and more crypto projects using AI, the risks of things like faulty AI predictions and data manipulation are rising. Current security standards aren’t quite ready for these new AI-related threats.
The Bottom Line
Crypto needs a serious security upgrade. Hackers are getting more sophisticated, using automation and social engineering tactics. The industry needs to adapt quickly with better security measures to protect itself from these growing threats.