In 2025, crypto hacks moved towards social engineering
Hackers in the cryptocelt change their course: they no longer use smart contracts, but now focus on deceiving users directly.
According to the web3 security company CertiK Most of the $ 2.1 billion, which were previously lost in 2025 by crypto hacks, from phishing attacks and compromised wallets.
Instead of taking advantage of weaknesses in the protocol, attackers now apply fraudulent tactics to steal private keys and access user funds. Ronghui Gu, co-founder of Certik, told cointelegraph during an x spaces session on June 2 that this shift illustrates a growing trend: no longer the code, but human behavior is now the primary area of attack.
Phishing frauds have been the most harmful attack vector since 2024 and cost the industry over $ 1 billion in almost 300 incidents. These fraud often contain fake links and tricks with wallet addresses, the execution of which requires little technical knowledge.
The change in tactics is against the background that Defi protocols improve their security. GU noticed that attackers simply switch to where the defense is weakest – since smart contracts are now more difficult to exploit, the users themselves are the new goal.
An impressive example is the Bitcoin theft of $ 330.7 million, which at the beginning of this year passed a victim in the United States and that was not hacking, but was fraud.
GU emphasized the need for greater protection of wallets, better access controls and real -time monitoring in order to counteract this developing threat situation.
The biggest incident of the year remains the hacker attack on Bybit in February, in which $ 1.4 billion was captured and which is attributed to the North Korean Lazarus Group. This individual incident accounts for over 60% of the total loss in 2025 and thus approaches the total value of the previous year of $ 2.3 billion in 760 attacks.
Since traditional code-based exploits are declining, the crypto industry is now facing a new challenge: securing the human level.
