2025 has kicked off with a series of crypto hacks, raising major concerns about the impact of digital asset theft. More than $1.77 billion was stolen in the first quarter of the year, according to Finbold’s Q1 2025 Cryptocurrency Market Report.
“The $1.77 billion reported in crypto hacking incidents during Q1 2025 only reflects publicly known cases. In reality, the total value lost is likely much higher, as many breaches go unreported or don’t disclose the full extent of financial damage. At this pace, 2025 is on track to become a record-breaking year for crypto-related security breaches,” stated Jordan Major and Diana Paluteder, co-authors of Finbold’s Q1 2025 Cryptocurrency Market Report.
$1.5 billion stolen from Bybit cold wallet
The report revealed that a singular attack accounted for nearly 85 percent of all the value stolen. In February 2025, a Bybit cold wallet with approximately $1.5 billion worth of Ethereum (ETH) was stolen by an unknown assailant.
In addition to representing the lion’s share of crypto stolen in Q1, 2025, the Bybit hack is larger than the total stolen in the first half of 2024 – $1.38 billion – and is three times larger than the total for the first quarter of 2023 – $452 million, putting 2025 on track to be a record-breaking year for cryptocurrency hacks with several high-profile incidents already reported.
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Libra rug pull sees losses of around $100 million
The Libra (LIBRA) rug pull saw a loss of approximately $100 million last quarter. Meanwhile, Infini, a Hong Kong stablecoin neobank, suffered a $50 million loss in late February as the assailant abused the administrative privileges they retained. The attacker is alleged to have previously helped develop the contract for the company, only to secretly keep undue privileges and drain the funds using the famous cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash.
Elsewhere, the fourth and fifth-largest crypto hacks of the quarter both involved the abuse of contract vulnerabilities. In late March, an attacker exploited a weakness in Abracadabra Money’s smart contracts to drain 6,262 ETH – worth approximately $13 million at the time – from the liquidity pool.
In early February, another assailant utilized a rounding bug to drain a zkLend of 3,600 ETH worth $9.6 million. Lastly, it is worth noting that Finbold’s Q1 2025 Cryptocurrency Market Report is based on incidents with known values, meaning that the actual total likely exceeds the known total of $1.77 billion.
