On February 21, the bybit in the cryptocurrency exchange said that an Ethereum transaction had been transferred to an unidentified address, which led to a 1.5 billion dollars in cryptocurrency Ethereum.
It is a long list of hacks and substantial cryptocurrency flights. Chainalysis reports that more than $ 1.7 billion in cryptocurrency were stolen in 2023 and more than $ 3.8 billion in 2022. Since hacking resulting in a hint of $ 473 million in Bitcoin from MT. Gox Exchange in 2011, flight and fraud continued to be a serious risk in cryptocurrency. Recent examples include hacking and theft of $ 477 million in cryptocurrency from the FTX Exchange in November 2022; the hacking and theft of $ 570 million in cryptocurrency from Binance Exchange in October 2022; piracy and theft of $ 625 million in cryptocurrency of the Ronin network in March 2022; the hacking and theft of $ 611 million in cryptocurrency of the Poly network in August 2021; And hacking and theft of $ 532 million in the Coincheck Stock Exchange in January 2018.
It should not be surprising that cryptocurrency exchanges are a target for hacks, fraud and theft. Cryptocurrency as a whole continues to occupy a gray space between existing executives for the financial industry and the rapid development of developments in new technologies and in the way they are regulated. The well -established requirements have become more complex in crypto. Examples include knowing your client – better known as “kYc”, monitoring criminal activities, reporting of suspicious activity or even determining the jurisdiction has authority on taxation or legal application. Then there are examples that could be described ironic like “we have no law for your crime”. This includes whether entities with the power to insert, omit or reorganize blockchain transactions carry out activities which constitute a market manipulation.
Cryptocurrency is built on blockchain technology and is ostensibly secure. Like any other digital system, however, security depends on the coding, security checks and staff supervising the process. Is the whole cryptocurrency secure? Of course, no – just consider the billions that have been stolen since its creation.
Can it be secure? Of course, but like any other digital system, it depends on many mobile parts. At the level of the system, reasonable diligence can only excite many concerning the real product and the safety program for cryptocurrency exchange information. Investors must also take care of their own digital security. The malicious actors regularly engage in social engineering through phishing attacks during which they can deploy software to monitor strikes and obtain account names and passwords. They monitor public Wi-Fi networks and are continuously looking for means of access to cryptocurrency accounts. They also try to compromise consumption phones by social engineering service providers, by persuading them to transfer consumers’ telephone numbers to the malicious actor identity module – called SIM exchange. SIM exchanges allow malicious actors to manipulate and bypass multi-faster authentication, reset passwords and pursue fraud and theft affecting the exchanges of cryptocurrency.
For cryptocurrency exchanges and individuals, many security principles should not change simply because they involve cryptocurrency. These include activating two factors to two factors as far as possible, limiting the sharing of private information / information on accounts, being cautious on public networks and avoiding the current traps of scams (including the search for false websites or URLs, and not to engage with unstalled offers and communications with tactics or unusually high -pressure requirements).
In order to reduce fraud and theft affecting cryptocurrency exchanges in 2025, exchanges must continuously and improve their information security programs, and cryptocurrency investors and users must ensure that their own information security practices are improved. Investors and users should also consider removing their cryptocurrency from exchanges – which will continue to be the target of hacks and flight – and will use cold wallets and hardware wallets to increase the safety of their funds.
