Biggest cryptocurrency thefts in history

Last year, attackers stole $2.9 billion worth of cryptocurrencies in nearly 150 attacks, according to researchers at TRM Labs.

Authorities warned in July that organized crime groups use cryptocurrencies to quickly transfer resources between countries, without resorting to the conventional financial system.

See some of the biggest cryptocurrency thefts since the emergence of bitcoin in 2008.

A record amount of US$1.5 billion (R$7.95 billion) in ethers was stolen from the Bybit broker in February 2025, in what researchers considered the largest theft of digital currencies to date.

The FBI stated that North Korea was responsible for the attack and that the funds were quickly converted into other cryptocurrencies and then distributed to thousands of addresses on different blockchains.

Hackers stole around US$610 million (R$3.23 billion) from Poly Network, a platform that facilitates token transactions between users, in August 2021. They later returned almost all of the stolen resources.

In March 2022, hackers stole cryptocurrencies valued at around US$540 million (around R$2.86 billion) from a blockchain project linked to the popular online game Axie Infinity.

Ronin, a network that allows the transfer of cryptocurrencies between different blockchains, reported that hackers stole around 173,600 ethers and 25.5 million USD Coin tokens.

In January 2018, hackers stole around US$530 million (approximately R$2.81 billion) in cryptocurrencies from the Tokyo-based brokerage Coincheck, according to values ​​at the time.

The attackers attacked one of the company's "hot wallets", a digital wallet stored online, to drain resources.

At the time, South Korea's intelligence agency said a North Korean hacker group could be behind the theft.

In one of the first and most notorious attacks involving cryptocurrencies, bitcoins valued at almost US$500 million (around R$2.65 billion) were stolen from the Mt. Gox brokerage in Tokyo, then the largest in the world, between 2011 and 2014.

Mt. Gox, which had previously accounted for 80% of global bitcoin trading, filed for bankruptcy protection in early 2014 after the attack was revealed.