Hacking Losses Surge Thanks to Bybit, Cetus: CertiK

Blockchain security firm CertiK’s H1 2025 Hack3d Report finds hackers stole nearly $2.5 billion in 2025’s first six months, up drastically from the same period one year ago.

The latest report revealed that in the first half of 2025, hackers stole more than $2.47 billion, already exceeding last year’s total losses of $2.42 billion. The average loss per incident was $7,188,307, and the median was $88,000. When excluding funds that were frozen or returned by whitehat hackers, net losses so far in 2025 stand at $2.29 billion, already surpassing the $1.98 billion in net losses recorded for all of 2024.

While the figures point to a deteriorating security landscape, $1.78 billion or 72% of this year’s losses are attributable to two major incidents, the Bybit breach and Cetus protocol incident. Without these singular events, the total losses for 2025 would sit at $690 million.

Wallet compromise was the top attack vector in H1, with $1,706,937,700 stolen across 31 incidents, followed by phishing with $410,747,038 from 132 incidents and code vulnerability with $283,052,978 stolen across 114.

Ethereum suffered the greatest losses with $1,589,182,498 stolen across 164 incidents, followed by Bitcoin with $373,690,387 stolen across 10 incidents.

“While the overall figures are alarming, it is important to point out that the majority of the funds lost in H1 were attributable to two concentrated, high-impact events,” said CertiK co-founder Ronghui Gu. “But regardless, the results serve as another reminder to the industry that there is still much work to be done. When it comes to security, a multi-layered approach encompassing robust code audits, formal verification, real-time monitoring, incident response plans, vulnerability assessments, and employee awareness training should be treated as the norm, not the exception.”

The report found that $801 million was lost in Q2 alone, a 52.1% decrease from Q1’s $1.67 billion. Phishing was the top attack vector for Q2, with $395,063,695 stolen across 52 incidents. The average loss per incident was $4,209,024, and the median loss per incident was $103,996.

By type

Phishing: $395,063,695 stolen, 52 incidents

Code vulnerability: $235,783,844 stolen, 47 incidents

Access control: $36,186,876 stolen, 14 incidents

Price manipulation: $17,427,207 stolen, 13 incidents

Wallet compromise: $112,043,147 stolen, 9 incidents

Exit scam: $358,235 stolen, 4 incidents

 

By chain

BTC: $373,637,857 stolen, 9 incidents

Multiple chains: $111,459,872 stolen, 6 incidents

Ethereum: $65,370,264 stolen, 70 incidents

Stacks: $16,173,227 stolen, 1 incident

BSC: $6,926,835 stolen, 38 incidents

Solana: $5,889,911 stolen, 1 incident

zkSync: $5,552,819 stolen, 1 incident

Arbitrum: $3,619,271 stolen, 4 incidents

Base: $1,987,249 stolen, 12 incidents

Linea: $282,806 stolen, 1 incident

Polygon: $12,510 stolen, 1 incident

 

Q2 Top 10 incidents (not including phishing attacks)

Cetus: $225,680,719.90 stolen

Nobitex: $89,142,954.89

ALEX Lab: $16,173,227.13 stolen

Cork Protocol: $11,961,229.86 stolen

Bitopro: $11,171,840.00 stolen

Resupply: $9,641,413.15 stolen

KiloEx: $7,424,606.00 stolen

Loopscale: $5,889,910.87 stolen

zkSync: $5,552,818.96 stolen

MagickBase: $3,662,019.62 stolen

The total value of funds returned was $180,950,613, leading to adjusted total losses of $620,365,056 for the quarter.

The average loss per incident was $4,209,024, and the median loss per incident was $103,996.

 

H1 2025 

By type

Wallet compromise: $1,706,937,700 stolen, 34 incidents

Phishing: $410,747,038 stolen, 132 incidents

Code vulnerability: $283,169,496 stolen, 114 incidents

Access control: $42,431,651 stolen, 25 incidents

Price manipulation: $18,691,418 stolen, 22 incidents

Exit scam: $1,671,428 stolen, 11 incidents

 

By chain

Ethereum: $1,589,182,498 stolen, 164 incidents

BTC: $373,690,387 stolen, 10 incidents

Multiple chains: $196,726,030 stolen, 14 incidents

Stacks: $16,173,227 stolen, 1 incident

BSC: $13,278,498 stolen, 91 incidents

Solana: $8,337,157 stolen, 7 incidents

Arbitrum: $8,272,377 stolen, 13 incidents

zkSync: $6,268,819 stolen, 2 incidents

Base: $3,946,800 stolen, 27 incidents

Tron: $3,188,021 stolen, 1 incident

Polygon: $1,146,903 stolen, 3 incidents

Linea: $282,806 stolen, 1 incident

 

H1 Top 10 incidents (not including phishing attacks)

Bybit: $1,447,063,421.00 stolen

Cetus: $225,680,719.90 stolen

Nobitex: $89,142,954.89

Phemex: $71,714,297.40

0xInfini: $49,514,632.79

ALEX Lab: $16,173,227.13 stolen

MIM Spell: $12,906,772.04

Cork Protocol: $11,961,229.86

Bitopro: $11,171,840.00

Resupply: $9,641,413.15 stolen

The total value of funds returned was $187,341,310, leading to adjusted total losses of $2,285,436,308 for H1 2025.

The average loss per incident was $7,129,980, and the median loss per incident was $89,026.



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