Cryptocurrency-related hacks resulted in almost $74 million in losses in January 2025, marking a staggering ninefold enhance from December, in response to a brand new report from Immunefi.
The sharp rise got here regardless of a virtually 45% year-over-year decline in comparison with January 2024, when losses totaled $133 million.
The majority of the losses stemmed from two main incidents: a $69.1 million hack focusing on Singapore-based alternate Phemex and a $2.5 million breach of choices buying and selling platform Moby Commerce.
Centralized finance (CeFi) platforms accounted for 93.5% of the whole stolen funds, whereas DeFi protocols represented simply 6.5% of the losses throughout 18 assaults.
Phemex assault
The assault on Phemex was the biggest crypto safety incident of the month and was liable for almost all CeFi-related losses.
Whereas the alternate didn’t instantly disclose particulars concerning the breach, the sheer scale of the theft underscored the dangers centralized platforms proceed to face from subtle cybercriminals.
Against this, DeFi platforms noticed comparatively smaller however extra frequent incidents, with notable breaches, together with an $830,000 loss at Orange Finance and a $554,900 assault on IPC.
Different DeFi initiatives affected in January included The Idols NFT, UniLend Finance, Odos, Laura Ai, Pika Infinity, and Sorra, every struggling losses starting from $43,000 to $330,000.
BNB Chain high goal
Immunefi’s knowledge additionally highlighted a shift in hackers’ focus towards particular blockchain networks. The BNB Chain was probably the most exploited, accounting for 50% of all crypto-related losses in January throughout 10 separate assaults.
Ethereum adopted with six incidents, whereas Arbitrum and Base recorded two assaults every. The layer-2 community Optimism was hit as soon as.
Regardless of the month-over-month spike in whole losses, January 2025’s figures have been considerably decrease than a 12 months prior, suggesting improved safety measures throughout elements of the business.
Immunefi’s findings reinforce the continuing vulnerabilities in each CeFi and DeFi, significantly as hackers proceed to refine their techniques to use weaknesses in digital asset platforms.