Cryptocurrency Phishing Attacks Plummet: 2025 Saw 83% Drop in Losses to $83.85 Million

The landscape of cryptocurrency phishing scams experienced a dramatic shift in 2025, with losses falling sharply by over 83% compared to the previous year. According to Scam Sniffer’s comprehensive annual report, cybercriminals stole approximately $83.85 million through wallet drainer phishing schemes, impacting 106,106 victims worldwide—a stark contrast to 2024’s devastating toll of nearly $500 million extracted from more than 330,000 users. This significant decline signals a major transformation in both the volume and success rate of phishing attacks targeting digital asset holders.

Quarterly Breakdown: When Phishing Threats Peaked

The distribution of phishing losses across 2025 reveals a compelling relationship between market activity and attack intensity. Q1 witnessed phishing-related wallet drainers claiming $21.94 million from approximately 22,000 users, as early-year market sluggishness correlated with reduced phishing attempts. As market momentum began to recover in Q2, phishing losses declined to $17.78 million affecting around 21,000 victims, demonstrating that lower user engagement directly suppressed attack effectiveness.

Q3 emerged as the most dangerous quarter for phishing victims, with losses exploding to $31.04 million and striking 40,000 accounts during the Bitcoin and Ethereum market rallies. August and September alone accounted for 29% of the entire year’s phishing theft volume, indicating that periods of heightened market interest provided attackers with expanded opportunities. By Q4, phishing activity subsided considerably as market stabilization reduced engagement, with losses falling to just $13.09 million—the lowest quarterly figure of the year across 106,106 affected users.

Advanced Phishing Techniques: Permit Exploits and Signature Manipulation

The sophistication of phishing attacks in 2025 centered increasingly on approval-based exploits rather than crude credential theft. Permit and Permit2 protocols, designed to streamline wallet interactions without requiring fund transfers, became prime targets for manipulation. Attackers disguised malicious approval requests as routine wallet permissions, deceiving users into authorizing token drainage.

The year’s most expensive single phishing incident occurred in September, when attackers employed a Permit-style signature attack to steal $6.5 million in staked ETH and wrapped Bitcoin. This attack vector accounted for 38% of all thefts exceeding $1 million, underscoring how Permit-based phishing remained the most profitable methodology. In May, an approval escalation exploit drained $3.13 million in wrapped Bitcoin, while August saw another $3.05 million in stablecoins vanish through direct transfer deception.

The decline in mega-thefts provides another indicator of shifting attack patterns. Only 11 cases exceeded $1 million in losses during 2025, compared to 30 such incidents in 2024—a 63% reduction in six-figure phishing victories. Average victim losses also decreased to $790 from approximately $1,500 the previous year, suggesting attackers either faced greater user vigilance or shifted tactics toward volume-based attacks on smaller accounts.

Major Phishing Campaigns and Supply Chain Threats

February 2025 witnessed one of the year’s most consequential security breaches when the Lazarus Group compromised developer systems at a cryptocurrency wallet provider through sophisticated phishing and social engineering. By injecting malicious code into signing interfaces, the attackers created fake approval prompts that harvested $1.46 billion—marking one of 2025’s largest single supply chain phishing incidents. This attack highlighted how phishing extends beyond individual users to infrastructure providers.

Throughout the year, attackers deployed multiple phishing vectors beyond direct wallet interaction. Compromised email campaigns, hijacked website front-ends, and backdoored open-source libraries served as distribution channels for wallet malware designed to extract private keys en masse. In December, attackers sent fraudulent Google Task emails to over 3,000 manufacturing firms, exploiting legitimate integration tools to bypass email security filters. Victims clicking embedded task buttons were redirected to phishing landing pages, where credential harvesting enabled potential account takeovers and lateral movement into corporate systems.

2025 Phishing Trends and Risk Implications

The year’s data demonstrates that cryptocurrency phishing threats are evolving rather than disappearing. While overall losses declined 83%, the emergence of approval-based exploits and supply chain targeting suggests attackers are refining tactics in response to improved user awareness and platform defenses. The strong correlation between market cycles and phishing volume indicates that future rallies will likely attract renewed phishing campaigns. Users and organizations must remain vigilant, particularly toward suspicious approval prompts, email-based social engineering, and supply chain vulnerabilities that remain persistent attack vectors in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.