The first quarter of 2025 was the worst quarter ever in the history of crypto hacks. We saw crypto assets worth $1.64 billion stolen by bad actors during Q1 2025.
Security platform Immunefi shared these insights in a report on March 27.
The Bybit hack worth $1.46 billion — the largest crypto hacking incident ever — and the Phemex hack worth $69.1 million alone accounted for $1.52 billion in stolen crypto assets. These two incidents made up 94% of all the stolen assets during this quarter.
Due to the Bybit hack, February turned out to be the worst month of the quarter as it saw $1.53 billion in losses. January and March saw $73.9 million and $27.9 million in losses respectively.
There was a stark contrast between centralized (CeFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) exchanges when it came to breaches. While DeFi suffered $106.8 million in losses during the quarter, CeFi took the major hit with $1.5 billion in losses.
The two most targeted chains this quarter were BNB Chain (19 hacks) and Ethereum (15 hacks).
The recovery so far has been worth only $6.5 million, i.e., 0.4% of total assets stolen worth $1.64 billion. In contrast, 21.2% of the stolen funds had been recovered in Q1 2024.
In both Bybit and Phemex incidents, the notorious Lazarus Group — the hacking group tied to North Korea — allegedly took the spoils.
Immunefi founder Mitchell Amador remarked, “The sheer scale of these attacks shows how state-backed actors are arguably the most pressing threat to our industry.”
