Social engineering cost crypto billions in 2025: How to protect yourself

Crypto hackers took social engineering to a whole other level this year, and advances in artificial intelligence mean scams are about to get even harder to detect.

The majority of crypto exploits in the coming year won’t be caused by a zero-day bug in your favorite protocol, say crypto security experts. It’s going to be caused by you. 

That’s because 2025 has shown that the majority of hacks don’t start with malicious code; they begin with a conversation, Nick Percoco, chief security officer of crypto exchange Kraken, told Cointelegraph. 

From January to early December 2025, data from Chainalysis shows that the crypto industry witnessed over $3.4 billion in theft, with the February compromise of Bybit accounting for nearly half of that total. 

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