So far in 2025, cryptocurrency services have lost over $2.17 billion to theft and have already surpassed the damage seen across all of 2024. The bulk of these losses stems from the DPRKs record-breaking $1.5 billion hack of Bybit, the largest incident in cryptos history. Yet these are only part of the picture, as attackers have also ramped up direct wallet-targeting campaigns.

In fact, Chainalysis reported that MetaMask attacks alone have surged to affect as many as 500 users daily.

MetaMask Wallet Thefts Escalate

According to the latest report shared with CryptoPotato, Chainalysis observed a troubling rise in anomalous stolen fund events targeting MetaMask users. The trend gained pace during late 2024 into 2025. While MetaMask has seen previous spikes in theft activity, especially during mid-2022 and late 2023, the recent incidents are significant for their increased severity and frequency.

In some cases, nearly 500 MetaMask wallets were compromised in a single day during this period. A sharp spike on June 6, 2025, affecting around 226 wallets, further highlighted the utility of real-time anomaly detection on-chain in identifying coordinated attacks as they unfold.

Chainalysis noted that these unusual surges could stem from several underlying factors, including potential vulnerabilities within wallet software that attackers are systematically exploiting, as seen in past incidents like the Atomic Wallet hack.

In addition to that, compromised third-party infrastructure, such as malicious browser extensions or dApps, may be facilitating these thefts. The data may also reflect broader crypto adoption, which expands the target pool for attackers and makes large-scale wallet attacks more visible in aggregate data.

The growth in anomalous events affecting MetaMask users into 2025 suggests that malicious actors might be deliberately targeting widely-used wallet applications in the crypto ecosystem and that continued adoption of crypto could increase these numbers in the future.

Violence and Crypto

A disturbing subset of personal wallet theft involves wrench attacks, where criminals use physical violence or coercion to force individuals to hand over their crypto holdings.

Data indicates that 2025 is on track to record nearly double the number of such physical attacks compared to any previous year. Since many incidents go unreported, the actual count is likely much higher.

Analysis also shows a clear correlation between these violent attacks and a forward-looking moving average of Bitcoins price, which suggests that rising asset values, or even expectations of future price increases, may trigger further opportunistic assaults on known crypto holders.

While wrench attacks remain rare relative to online thefts, they often involve severe violence, including kidnapping, maiming, and even homicide.