In the first half of 2025, the cryptocurrency industry is facing an unprecedented security crisis. Losses caused by hacking attacks have reached $2.17 billion — surpassing the total losses of the entire previous year. Even more shocking is that the rate of loss accumulation is over 70 days faster than in 2022, the darkest year on record.

The destructive power of individual incidents is also breaking records. In February, a major exchange was hacked, losing $1.5 billion in a single attack, more than double the $615 million lost in the Ronin Network incident in 2022. Subsequently, several major exchanges were also targeted in attacks.

Interestingly, the real danger does not come entirely from technical issues. Data shows that losses due to access control failures account for as much as 59%, far exceeding losses from smart contract code flaws (only 8%). In other words, operational security issues such as poor private key management, internal leaks, and social engineering attacks have become more serious threats than technical vulnerabilities.

Even when using industry-recognized multi-signature security solutions, some exchanges still fall victim — indicating that technical defenses are no longer the key, and human factors and process management are the true lines of defense.