Crypto Exploit Losses Fell 60% in December Despite Ongoing Hacks

Losses from crypto-related hacks and exploits fell sharply in December 2025, even as the number of incidents remained elevated, according to data from blockchain security firm PeckShield.

In a post on X on Thursday, PeckShield said December 2025 recorded around 26 major crypto exploits, resulting in total losses of about $76 million. While the figure remains substantial, it marked a roughly 60% decline from November’s $194.3 million in losses, representing one of the steepest month-over-month drops in 2025.

While the reduction in losses may offer some relief to the market, PeckShield’s data shows that exploit activity remains a persistent threat across the crypto ecosystem.

Security analysts say December’s figures reflect a broader year-end pattern, with fewer large, headline-grabbing hacks but continued exposure to phishing, private key leaks, and other user-side security failures.

“What we noticed [is a] recurring theme in Web3 hacks…” Phantom Security said in a comment under PeckShield’s thread. “You’ll have a decrease in hacks for one month, two months, and then boom a major hack that will undo all the previous months.”

The largest incident in December involved the loss of approximately $50 million after funds were mistakenly sent to a malicious address. Another major exploit saw a multisig wallet drained of $27.3 million following a private key leak.

Several smaller incidents rounded out the month’s top exploits. The largest included the babursol exploit, which resulted in losses of roughly $22 million. Losses linked to the hack of a Trust Wallet browser extension reportedly totaled about $8.5 million, while Unleash Protocol and Layer 1 blockchain Flow each suffered exploits resulting in the loss of around $3.9 million, as The Defiant previously reported.

The hack of one of the top-three centralized exchanges, Bybit, earlier last year was the largest crypto exploit on record ever, with $1.5 billion stolen from the exchange.