The crypto industry saw at least $142 million stolen across 17 separate attacks in July, marking a 27% increase from the $111 million lost in June, according to blockchain security firm PeckShield.
Source: PeckShield
Despite the monthly rise, this figure remains 46% lower than July 2024’s total of $266 million, when Indian exchange WazirX suffered a massive $230 million exploit. This year, the largest incident involved another Indian platform—CoinDCX—which was breached for $44 million on July 18.
CoinDCX CEO Sumit Gupta described the exploit as a “sophisticated server breach,” and local authorities have since arrested a company employee in connection with the hack. Just two days earlier, crypto exchange BigONE fell victim to a third-party attack targeting its hot wallet infrastructure, resulting in losses exceeding $27 million. On July 24, trading platform WOO X became the third-largest victim for the month after attackers used social engineering tactics to steal at least $14 million.
Hackers shift focus to offchain infrastructure and insider exploits
According to Rob Behnke, chairman of blockchain security firm Halborn, the WOO X attackers compromised a team member’s device through a phishing scheme.
Source: Halborn
Once inside, they were able to access the development environment and perform multiple malicious transactions over the span of two hours before the platform detected the activity and halted withdrawals. The stolen funds were spread across several blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Arbitrum. Impacted user balances were later replenished through WOO X’s treasury.
Behnke noted a growing trend of attackers focusing on offchain infrastructure rather than smart contract vulnerabilities, warning that traditional audits are no longer enough. “DeFi hackers are becoming more sophisticated, targeting backend systems and internal processes. Projects must strengthen their internal security protocols to mitigate these evolving threats,” he said.