PeckShield | Crypto

Although monetary losses declined, users still lost tens of millions of dollars to common cybersecurity exploits like address poisoning scams. The total losses from hacks and cybersecurity exploits in the crypto industry amounted to about $76 million in December, a 60% decrease from November’s $194.2 million in losses, according to blockchain security company PeckShield. There were 26 major crypto exploits in December, PeckShield said in an X post, with one user losing $50 million in an address poisoning scams, a type of attack where the threat actor sends small amounts of cryptocurrency from a wallet that closely resembles a legitimate wallet address, betting that the intended victim won’t notice the discrepancy.   Typically, the first and last four characters of the addresses match, with the attacker hoping that the victim will accidentally send funds to the fraudulent address by selecting the poisoned address from their transaction history without closely examining the entire string. Read more

According to PeckShield, the theft stemmed from a private key compromise, allowing an attacker to drain the victim’s funds in a single swift move.

According to PeckShield, 20 major crypto hacks were reported in May, resulting in total losses of $244.1 million. In May, the total amount stolen from crypto hacks declined drastically compared to April, with the largest incident making up around 90% of the month’s total, according to a blockchain security firm. The decline comes as the crypto industry has been stepping up its efforts to stay ahead of hackers. “In May 2025, ~20 major crypto hacks were recorded, resulting in total losses of $244.1M — a 39.29% decrease from April,” blockchain security firm PeckShield said in a May 31 X post. The most significant hack of the month occurred on the Cetus decentralized exchange on May 22, with $223 million in user losses within 24 hours. Read more