At a Glance
- Blockchain security firm Cyvers traced $16 billion in crypto assets to fraudulent activity during 2025
- Pig butchering schemes emerged as the most organized and persistent threat vector
- The industry recorded 108 fraud or security incidents, with Ethereum accounting for 70% of funds lost
- Why it matters: Investors face an industrial-scale fraud ecosystem spanning 140 exchanges and 780,000 addresses
Crypto crime has reached industrial proportions, with $16 billion in assets linked to fraudulent flows across 140 exchanges in 2025, according to a new Web3 security report that labels pig butchering scams the most organized danger facing users.
Fraud Goes Industrial
Cyvers detected 4.2 million fraudulent transactions across 780,000 addresses operating inside 19,000 active fraud networks. The activity concentrated heavily in Tether (USDT), ether (ETH), and USD Coin (USDC), with every major exchange reporting that a significant portion of its clients had been defrauded at least once.
Authorized fraud-particularly pig butchering schemes-dominated the threat landscape. Criminals running these networks deploy long-term social engineering tactics and fake investment platforms to coax victims into draining their own wallets.
Hacks Rise to $2.5B
Security incidents added another $2.5 billion in losses during 2025, up from $2.36 billion in 2024 and $1.69 billion in 2023. More than $2.2 billion of that damage stemmed from access-control attacks involving compromised keys, permissions, and human error. Smart-contract and code vulnerabilities accounted for roughly $292 million.
The largest single theft in crypto history-the $1.5 billion Bybit breach-was facilitated through a supply-chain compromise that used legitimate signatures, making the transaction appear normal at first glance. Market observers note that such disguised on-chain threats may signal the future of attacks.
Ethereum in the Crosshairs
Ethereum bore the brunt of large-scale incidents, representing 70% of funds lost across 33 major events. Other networks hit by high-impact single events included BNB Chain, Bitcoin, and Sui.
The findings underscore a rapidly maturing threat environment where both fraud and technical exploits scale in tandem, leaving exchanges and users across multiple blockchains exposed to systemic risk.
