The reason is a $1.5 billion hack against crypto exchange ByBit earlier this year, blockchain intelligence company Chainalysis said Thursday (July 17) in its 2025 Crypto Crime Mid-Year Update.
“With over $2.17 billion stolen from cryptocurrency services so far in 2025, this year is more devastating than the entirety of 2024,” the update said, adding that the ByBit incident, the largest single hack in crypto history, makes up most of the losses.
“By the end of June 2025, 17% more value had been stolen year-to-date than in 2022, previously the worst year on record,” the update said. “If current trends continue, stolen funds from services could eclipse $4 billion by year’s end.”
Personal wallet compromises now account for a growing share of total ecosystem theft, according to the update. Attackers are increasingly focused on individual users, making up 23.35% of all stolen funds activity so far this year.
There is also a correlation between “wrench attacks,” or physical violence or coercion against crypto holders, and bitcoin price movements, which suggests “opportunistic targeting during high-value periods,” per the update.
Advertisement: Scroll to Continue
Meanwhile, Chainalysis co-founder and CEO Jonathan Levin said last week that the United States could benefit from blockchain technology if regulators embrace its “transparency, speed and programmability” while testifying before the Senate Banking Committee on digital asset markets.
“All forms of value will be transferred using this technology,” Levin said of blockchains July 9. “We are here to prevent abuse and pave the way for all people, businesses and governments to leverage it safely.”
A policy framework should recognize that blockchain introduces a new model for financial oversight and that the oversight of the system should be built on publicly available information, he said.
In April, Levin told PYMNTS about the importance of stablecoin adoption for blockchain usage.
“When we started the business in 2014, that wasn’t yet a concept,” he said. “Cryptocurrency only meant blockchains that had native cryptocurrency tokens. Today, people are putting all types of financial instruments on the blockchain, including the U.S. dollar.”
