A worrying pattern has formed in the crypto sector. Reports say that about four in five projects hit by major hacks do not fully recover. Money is lost, yes. But the deeper damage is often to trust — and that can be fatal. Related Reading: Saylor Defends Bitcoin Treasury Firms Amid Rising Criticism Trust Erodes Fast When a breach is found, users pull funds quickly. Partners step back. Liquidity dries up. Industry experts, including Immunefi CEO Mitchell Amador, warn that slow or unclear responses can push entire communities away. Some projects try to fix code quietly. That can fail. Silence is sometimes treated as hiding. Panic spreads. Confidence drops. “Nearly 80% of projects that suffer a hack never fully recover,” Amador pointed out. The primary reason, he said, is not the initial loss of funds, but the “breakdown of operations and trust during the response.” How Teams Respond Can Decide Fate Reports note that incident plans are rare and that the absence of a clear playbook hurts more than the bug itself. A quick, honest update can calm people. A slow, confused reaction makes things worse. In many cases, even after the technical flaw is fixed, the project stays damaged because users left and did not return. Some teams are rebuilt under new names. Others never regain attention. The human side of recovery matters a lot. Amador said many protocols freeze once an exploit comes to light. According to him, teams often underestimate how exposed they are and lack the operational readiness needed to handle a serious security breach. Security Problems Are Changing The attacks are not all the same. Smart contract bugs remain a big cause. But now simple human errors, like leaked keys or social tricks, are also common. Reports say that losses in recent years have grown into the billions, with one figure around $3.4 billion lost in a single year. That number shows the scale of the risk. Community Reaction Shapes Outcomes A project can be technically repaired. But the people who used it may have moved on. Communities are fragile. Some founders try to refund users or set up funds to cover losses. That can help. Other teams decide to close down the service and focus on other work. The decision is sometimes made for them when liquidity vanishes and partners cut ties. Recovery is often not just a technical task; it is a rebuild of trust and reputation. Data from Chainalysis shows the $1.4 billion Bybit hack accounted for almost half of crypto losses in 2025. Related Reading: What’s Driving The $1.42 Billion Comeback In Spot Bitcoin ETFs? Huge Damage Crypto hacks jumped sharply in 2025 as attackers hit both large platforms and private wallets. Based on reports, total losses reached $3.4 billion, the biggest annual figure since 2022. Just three breaches were responsible for nearly 70% of that damage by early December, with the $1.4 billion Bybit exploit standing out as the largest. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
In an exclusive interview with CoinDesk, Immuneifi’s CEO, Mitchell Amador, said onchain security is improving despite losses continuing to rise.
Investors logged into glossy crypto trading dashboards showing five-figure “profits,” then found themselves blocked from withdrawing a cent unless they first wired extra “taxes” or “loan repayments” to overseas accounts. When victims tried to cash out, the platforms demanded advance fees to “unlock” their accounts, yet never released any money. On Dec. 22, the SEC […]
The post SEC filings reveal the multi-million dollar trap hiding inside ‘exclusive’ WhatsApp crypto investment clubs appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Coinbase said a former customer support agent was arrested in India as investigators probe a breach tied to insider bribery and customer data theft. Chief Executive Officer Brian Armstrong said on Dec. 27 that the arrest involved a former support agent and thanked Hyderabad Police for assistance in the ongoing investigation. The update puts attention […]
The post Coinbase claims arrest in the $355 million insider extortion scheme that targeted nearly 70,000 customers appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Binance co-CEO Yi He said her WeChat account was hijacked on Dec. 10 after a cell number tied to the profile was reclaimed and could not be recovered at first. The account was later restored after Binance worked with WeChat’s security team, according to a spokesperson cited the same day. Posts that appeared after the […]
The post Binance CEO had WeChat hacked by cellphone exploit that likely leaves your own crypto exposed appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Polymarket just resolved “YES” on a $16 million market asking whether the Trump administration would declassify UFO files in 2025… even though no documents have been released. The outcome arrived after late-session buying near 99 to 99.9 cents, and a resolution through UMA’s Optimistic Oracle, which recorded multiple disputes before finalization. The oracle pipeline relies […]
The post Polymarket faces major credibility crisis after whales forced a “YES” UFO vote without evidence appeared first on CryptoSlate.
For a few days in November, a malicious Chrome extension ranked as the fourth result for “Ethereum wallet” on the Chrome Web Store. The extension, called “Safery: Ethereum Wallet,” looked polished enough to pass as legitimate. It had a clean icon, a generic name adjacent to security language, a flood of five-star reviews, and boilerplate […]
The post Security reality check: Top-ranked Chrome ‘wallet’ that steals your seedphrase appeared first on CryptoSlate.
U.S. federal agencies are establishing a Scam Center Strike Force to counter the industrial-scale efforts to swindle money via crypto transactions.
The louder these companies protest regulation, the clearer it becomes that something’s off, argue Paradigm’s Katie Biber and Dominique Little.
Technical wallet hacks, including phishing and malware, are the second most common threat, making up 33.7% of incidents.
Bithumb led with 12.4 billion won, followed by Upbit with 366 million won. Smaller amounts moved through Coinone and Korbit, while Gopax reported no activity.
Will the UK sell 61,000 BTC, or pay victims the gains? The United Kingdom is holding 61,000 Bitcoin worth roughly $7.2 billion after pleading guilty to fraud, and a January High Court test will determine who will capture the upside from assets seized in 2018. Zhimin Qian, also known as Yadi Zhang, pleaded guilty on […]
The post Will the UK sell newly seized $7.2B BTC, create Bitcoin treasury or pay victims? appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Qian defrauded more than 128,000 victims in China between 2014 and 2017, subsequently storing her spoils in BTC and fleeing to the U.K
The hacker who drained UXLINK in a high-profile exploit has ironically become a victim of crypto crime himself. On Sept. 23, blockchain security platform Scam Sniffer reported that the attacker lost roughly 542 million UXLINK tokens, valued at more than $50 million, to a phishing scheme executed by another bad actor. SlowMist co-founder Yu Xian […]
The post Crypto hacker falls victim to own scam losing $50 million to Inferno Drainer’s phishing attack appeared first on CryptoSlate.
An unidentified crypto investor has lost over $3 million in a highly coordinated phishing attack after unknowingly authorizing a malicious contract. On Sept. 11, blockchain investigator ZachXBT first flagged the incident, revealing that the victim’s wallet was drained of $3.047 million in USDC. The attacker quickly swapped the stablecoins for Ethereum and funneled the proceeds […]
The post New ‘sophisticated’ phishing exploit drains $3M in USDC from multi-sig wallet appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Blockchain investigator ZachXBT reported that the Solana (SOL) trading platform Aqua allegedly conducted a rug pull, draining 21.77k SOL worth $4.65 million after securing endorsements from major ecosystem partners and recently passing security audits. Aqua positioned itself as a trading infrastructure designed to democratize access beyond “insiders or whales,” claiming to have processed over $90 […]
The post Solana trading bot Aqua allegedly rug pulls $4.65 million after major ecosystem endorsements appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Polygon developer Bruno Skvorc lashed out at World Liberty Financial (WLF) on Saturday, accusing the company of stealing his funds. In a post on X, Skvorc wrote: “…they stole my money, and because it’s the @POTUS family, I can’t do anything about it.” Skvorc was one of the hundreds of users, including Tron founder and […]
The post Polygon developer calls World Liberty Financial the ‘scam of all scams” appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Hackers are using Ethereum smart contracts to conceal malware payloads inside seemingly benign npm packages, a tactic that turns the blockchain into a resilient command channel and complicates takedowns. ReversingLabs detailed two npm packages, colortoolsv2 and mimelib2, that read a contract on Ethereum to fetch a URL for a second-stage downloader rather than hardcoding infrastructure […]
The post Ethereum smart contracts quietly push javascript malware targeting developers appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Venus Protocol temporarily suspended its platform on Sept. 2 after a user lost tens of millions of dollars in a targeted phishing incident. The pause followed reports from blockchain security firm Cyvers, which flagged a suspicious transaction draining nearly $27 million from a single wallet. According to reports, the stolen assets included $19.8 million in […]
The post Venus Protocol suspends platform after phishing scam drains $27 million, XVS falls 6% appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Cybersecurity firm SentinelLABS has uncovered a sophisticated scam campaign that has siphoned over $900,000 from unsuspecting crypto users. According to the report, the attackers use malicious Ethereum-based smart contracts disguised as trading bots to target individuals who follow seemingly educational content on YouTube. The report added that these scams have been active since early 2024 […]
The post Fake Ethereum trading bots on YouTube help scammers steal over $900K appeared first on CryptoSlate.
A wave of multisig-related hacks and operational misconfiguration led to catastrophic losses in the first half of 2025.
X’s Grok chatbot declined to select a winner for a $1,000 Ethereum giveaway organized by crypto influencer Crypto Rover, citing prior allegations of pump-and-dump activity detailed by on-chain investigator ZachXBT. In replies to users participating in the weekend contest, Grok stated it was abstaining from choosing a winner due to “substantiated reports” implicating Rover in […]
The post Grok refuses to pick winner for Crypto Rover competition citing ZachXBT pump and dump evidence appeared first on CryptoSlate.
XRP has hit a new all-time high of $3.65, driven largely by a spike in trading activity across South Korea and the United States. Data from CryptoSlate shows that XRP ranked among the top five most traded digital assets over the past 24 hours, trailing only behind Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the stablecoins USDT and USDC. […]
The post XRP trading volume soars as new ATH attracts deepfake scam targeting investors appeared first on CryptoSlate.
The Beijing Internet Finance Industry Association (BIFA) issued a notice on July 9 urging retail investors to reject pitchbooks that wrap old-style pyramid sales in crypto terminology. According to local news outlets, BIFA said promoters have begun advertising “stablecoin wealth plans,” “Web 3.0 dividends,” and similar offers that promise fixed returns. The circular listed five […]
The post Chinese industry group warns Web3 and DeFi high-return deals hide classic Ponzi engines appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Analysts at BitMEX Research have raised the alarm about a scam targeting early Bitcoin holders, particularly those with wallets dating back to 2011. According to the firm, the scam appears to exploit long-dormant addresses by injecting false transactions and misleading messages via OP_Return outputs, an optional field in Bitcoin transactions that can carry arbitrary data. […]
The post Scam targets dormant Bitcoin wallets with fake legal notice appeared first on CryptoSlate.
An on-chain investigation has revealed that North Korea IT workers posing as foreign developers have earned nearly $17 million from crypto startups and blockchain companies this year. The findings, revealed by prominent blockchain investigator ZachXBT, show that these individuals have successfully integrated into dozens of crypto projects by concealing their identities and locations. According to […]
The post North Korean IT workers earned $17M this year with some funds coming from Circle accounts appeared first on CryptoSlate.
The majority of incidents took place on the Ethereum network, followed by Bitcoin.
The first half of 2025 exposed deep vulnerabilities in the crypto industry, with hackers stealing over $2.1 billion across 75 separate incidents. This marks a 10% increase from the previous H1 record of $2 billion in 2022 and nearly matches the full-year figure for 2024, which closed at $2.2 billion, according to a report from […]
The post Crypto heists reach $2.1B so far in 2025 as state-backed hackers ramp up attacks appeared first on CryptoSlate.
A new wave of cyberattacks shows the DPRK is exploiting the crypto industry’s recruitment funnel, using fake LinkedIn job offers, deep‑fake Zoom calls, and backdoored interview files to access Web3 developers’ wallets and repositories. With seasoned developer talent already thinning and open‑source protocols increasingly reliant on individual contributors, the stakes have never been higher. North […]
The post You’re Hired! North Korea’s new crypto scam starts with a job offer appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Investigators have linked a figure in the $30 million ZKasino alleged scam to a fresh cryptocurrency project branded WhiteRock (WHITE), on-chain analyst ZachXBT reported in a June 16 post on X. WhiteRock surfaced in December 2024 with an anonymous team, overstated user counts, and unverifiable claims about a USDX reserve, researchers at Blokiments wrote in […]
The post ZachXBT warns suspected ZKasino fraudster may be linked to new crypto venture WhiteRock appeared first on CryptoSlate.