Overview

• The year’s total is dominated by the Bybit exchange breach of roughly $1.4 billion to $1.46 billion, which the FBI and blockchain analysts attributed to North Korean actors.
• Elliptic reports more than 30 hacks so far in 2025, marking the largest annual total on record with months still remaining.
• Researchers describe a shift toward social engineering that targets high-net-worth holders and executives rather than solely exploiting technical flaws.
• Post-breach tracing shows complex laundering across multiple blockchains using obscure protocols, repeated swaps, mixers, and self-issued tokens to obscure origins.
• Elliptic estimates cumulative North Korea-attributed crypto theft since 2017 at over $6 billion, while cautioning that attribution is imprecise and totals may be higher.