CertiK ’s co-founder, Ronghui Gu, laid it out plain during a live show, and said the war between crypto defenders and hackers?
It’s endless. Why? Because hackers only need one crack in the armor, a single weak spot in millions of lines of blockchain code, and boom, they’re in.
Cat and mouse, crypto style
Despite all the fancy cybersecurity measures the industry throws up, hackers are relentless.
They’re evolving faster than a wise guy dodging a hit. The first half of 2025 saw $2.47 billion stolen in hacks, scams, and exploits.
More than the entire $2.4 billion lost in all of 2024. Mind you, a single heist, the infamous $1.4 billion Bybit hack in February, accounts for more than half that loot.
That’s the biggest cybercrime caper the crypto world ever saw.
But the battle isn’t just about code anymore. As blockchain security tightens, hackers shift focus to the easiest prey, us, the humans.
Gu explained it clearly, and said we are the targets now.
“If the blockchain itself gets tougher, guess what? They start targeting the people holding the keys. The ones signing transactions. The ones doing the clicking.”
Wrong click
In 2024, about half of all crypto security break-ins weren’t done by cracking the blockchain itself, but by going after operational risks, think lost or stolen private keys, careless clicks, and sloppy personal security.
Scammers trick investors into clicking malicious links, handing over access to wallets like street toughs passing out cigars.
One investor lost $3 million just for a wrong click, an accidental signing of a malicious transaction drained USDt straight out of his wallet.
Classic rookie mistake. He probably only glanced at the first and last characters of a wallet address, missing the middle part where the bad guy’s trap was set. Oof.
Arms race
So, as much as tech advances, the human factor is the soft underbelly in crypto security. It’s like having a fortress built of steel, but leaving the back door wide open.
Hackers know this, and they exploit it with surgical precision.
Experts warn, next year could still see billion-dollar hacks. It’s an arms race, and the fight will never end.
Cryptocurrency and Web3 expert, founder of Kriptoworld
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With years of experience covering the blockchain space, András delivers insightful reporting on DeFi, tokenization, altcoins, and crypto regulations shaping the digital economy.
