From Bybit to Coinbase: 2025’s Biggest Crypto Hacks and Breaches

This 12 months was a document for hacks within the crypto sector, with over $2.72 billion stolen, based on information from TRM Labs.  

Sure, with depressed crypto costs getting buyers down, 2025 was a very dangerous 12 months for exploits—even after 2024 broke data.

The 12 months obtained off to a horrible begin with a $1.5 billion loss in February after North Korean hackers focused centralized trade Bybit in essentially the most important crypto exploit in historical past.



That set the tone for the remainder of the 12 months, with “much more organized and professionalized” crimes, TRM Labs instructed Decrypt.

“Assaults are sooner, higher coordinated, and much simpler to scale than they have been in earlier cycles,” TRM’s World Head of Coverage Ari Redbord mentioned. “In 2025, we additionally noticed the continued enlargement of North Korea’s IT employee schemes, which additional added to the operational sophistication behind many campaigns.” 

Let’s dive in and try the most important hacks and breaches of 2025. 

Bybit: $1.5 billion

The 12 months obtained off to the worst attainable begin when hackers—believed to be from North Korea—focused crypto trade Bybit and made off with between $1.4 and $1.5 billion in Ethereum and associated tokens. 

The exploit shocked the trade not solely due to its dimension, but in addition as a result of the funds have been supposedly held in chilly, multi-signature wallets—the most secure strategy to retailer digital property securely.

Multi-signature pockets supplier Protected mentioned the heist stemmed from a compromised developer laptop computer. An investigation later discovered {that a} high-level Protected developer’s workstation was compromised on February 4 when it interacted with a malicious software.

Coinbase: As much as $400 million

Coinbase, America’s greatest crypto trade and some of the well-known and trusted manufacturers within the area, dropped a bomb in Might when it revealed an information breach. 

Criminals had despatched the corporate a letter demanding $20 million in Bitcoin in trade for stolen buyer particulars. Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong then provided the identical bounty to assist catch the criminals. 

The trade assured those that no funds, passwords, or non-public keys have been compromised within the hack. And though buyer funds weren’t stolen, Coinbase’s abroad subcontractors have been bribed into handing over delicate data. Coinbase mentioned that the incident might value the agency as a lot as $400 million to treatment.

Cetus Protocol: $223 million

Regardless of crooks eying centralized protocols this 12 months, decentralized finance protocols remained a favourite for hackers, with Sui’s main decentralized trade, Cetus Protocol, receiving the most important intestine punch.

In Might, attackers exploited vulnerabilities in Cetus Protocol’s sensible contracts, utilizing spoof tokens to control value calculations and drain liquidity swimming pools on the most important decentralized trade within the Sui ecosystem. 

In a uncommon final result for the DeFi area, Cetus recovered round $162 million in funds frozen by the assault, and the protocol went again on-line 17 days after the exploit. 

Nobitex: $90 million

Professional-Israeli hacker group Gonjeshke Darande hit Iran’s greatest crypto trade Nobitex in June, draining $90 million in crypto from the centralized platform. 

The group alleged that Nobitex had hyperlinks to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. 

However the assault was controversial as compliance agency Crystal Intelligence instructed Decrypt on the time that many harmless retail buyers have been probably affected, regardless of the Israeli group’s claims. 

UPCX: $70 million

One other DeFi protocol was damage this 12 months after cybercrooks drained $70 million from the open-source platform UPCX in April. 

Hackers exploited a compromised non-public key to steal funds within the type of the protocol’s native UPC token, an exploit that hardly made headlines regardless of the massive quantity of funds pinched. 

The value of the protocol’s token has since struggled to get better, based on CoinGecko, after plunging arduous following the exploit, from $4 in April to only over $1.20, as of December 5.

BtcTurk: $50 million

Hackers once more focused Turkish trade BtcTurk in August, strolling away with $48 million on the time. The assault got here after cybercriminals made away with $54 million in 2024.

The trade instructed customers it had suspended withdrawals after blockchain analysts flagged suspicious transactions—largely in Ethereum. 

BtcTurk has mentioned little or no because the incident, however two main hacks in such a brief interval have accomplished little to shore up confidence amongst retail buyers.

Upbit: $36 million

North Korean actors have been the primary suspects once more after South Korean trade Upbit introduced in November that it had misplaced round $36 million from its Solana scorching pockets. 

Meme cash have been among the many property stolen, and the trade was fast to reassure customers that funds have been rapidly moved to chilly wallets following the exploit. The velocity of the assault led South Korean authorities to level the finger on the state-sponsored hacking group, Lazarus.