According to PeckShield, losses from crypto hacks fell by nearly 60% in December, down to around $76 million from around $194 million in November.
That sharp month-to-month decline was caused by a few large-scale robberies, but the damage done was still great. Reports revealed a mix of scams and technical failures that combined to make December vulnerable.
December Loss Down 60%
PeckShield tracked about 26 major items during the month. One of the biggest hits was an address poisoning scam that took in nearly $50 million. In that scheme, victims were tricked into sending funds to an address that looked almost exactly like a legitimate one.
Other major losses include a $27 million withdrawal from a multi-signature wallet tied to a private key leak, about $7 million linked to the Trust Wallet exploit, and about $3.9 million linked to issues involving the Flow protocol. These figures are reported across multiple stores and are similar to the figures compiled by PeckShield.
#PeckShieldAlert December 2025 witnessed ~26 major crypto exploits, resulting in total losses of ~$76M.
This figure represents a drop of more than 60% from November’s figure of $194.27M, marking the largest monthly loss.
Notably:
🔺Wallet 0xcB80…819 lost $50M… pic.twitter.com/CNW3R6646j— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) January 1, 2026
Big Scams Still Cause Big Damage
Address poisoning stands out because it relies on human error rather than a broken legal process. A small mistake – copying the wrong address – can erase a large transfer.
The loss of Trust Wallet was linked to a vulnerability in a browser extension that allowed attackers to withdraw funds. In some cases, refunds were negotiated for the services involved.
Reports have revealed that private key exposure, even in purportedly secure wallets, continues to be a common cause of major losses.
Some experts say the decline in dollar losses reflects fewer major breaches, not the disappearance of threats. Security teams have been more active, and some wallets have strengthened checks.
But the methods used by the attackers did not disappear. Fraudulent scams, such as the address trick, are still being played, and sophisticated intrusions are still possible.
It appeared that a few incidents made up the bulk of December’s total, which helps explain the swing in monthly figures.
Careful monitoring of these trends by regulators and other stakeholders such as platform operators will also continue. There have been increasing pressures to provide better security for exchanges and other wallets where there have been breaches; and additional actions that are timely after identification of consensus.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
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