Crypto Hacks Soar in January 2025, Phemex Exchange Hit Hard

According to Immunefi’s most recent report, there was a significant increase in cryptocurrency attacks in January 2025, with damages totaling $73.9 million from 19 different occurrences. Even if this is a nine-fold rise over December 2024, it is still a 44.6% drop from the $133.4 million in losses during the same time last year.

Phemex Exchange the Major Victim

The bulk of the damage came from a breach at Singapore-based exchange Phemex, which suffered a staggering $69.1 million loss. Hackers exploited the exchange’s hot wallet, draining funds across various cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and Bitcoin. Analysts suspect that the attack is linked to North Korea, with stolen stablecoins rapidly converted into Ethereum to avoid blacklisting.

Marking a significant trend, centralized finance (CeFi) platforms were the primary targets in January, accounting for 93.5% of the total stolen funds. The Phemex attack was the main contributor to this disparity. Meanwhile, decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols experienced 18 separate attacks but saw far less financial damage, with only 6.5% of the total losses.

The report also revealed that BNB Chain was the most targeted blockchain, suffering from 10 individual attacks that collectively accounted for 50% of the total stolen funds. Ethereum followed closely behind, with six incidents contributing to 25% of the total losses. Arbitrum and Base each experienced two attacks, while Optimism saw just one breach during the month.

According to the report, fraud did not play a significant role in the thefts. All reported losses were attributed to hacking incidents, highlighting the growing risks in the crypto space.