Bybit Breach and CEX Vulnerabilities Lead Losses

According to the Mid-Year 2025 Crypto Crime Report 2025, about 75 percent of cryptocurrency losses this year could be blamed on one hack at Bybit and 10 other centralized exchange (CEX) attacks. These are losses in the tune of about 2.17 billion. The biggest crypto theft of all times was the responsibility of Bybit alone, serving as much as 1.5 billion of the total losses. According to the report, the current attacks have changed tactics with the state-sponsored malicious actors such as Lazarus Group using human and insider access.

Bybit Hacks and Attacks Methods

Bybit is another hacking of February 21, 2025, which stole 1.5 billion Ethereum tokens. Attackers stole entry into the social engineering and signature machine. Bybit was hacked by Lazarus Group. This is a North Korea group that employs phishing and malware. Several bridges laundered the stolen money soon after. These cases have contributed to the surge of crypto crime in 2025.

CEX Incidents and Broader Implications

Along with the Bybit hack, 10 CEX hacks led to the total amount of losses of 2.17 billion. Such hacks are still directed to the high liquidity platforms. These are the most appropriate targets of advanced cyber-attacks. The breaches of SmartEx, Nobitex and BitoPro are other signs of the increasing vulnerability of CEX platforms. The paper dislodges the assumption that decentralized finance (DeFi) is the major target as opposed to the danger involved in centralized exchanges.

The report highlights the importance of human errors and social engineering as important crypto security weaknesses. The majority of the heists such as the Bybit hack took place due to the insider access and phishing attacks. Only phishing attacks involved a loss of 420 million dollars in 130 cases. Human error still is a great risk even when technical defenses are in place.