Social engineering quietly drained billions from crypto in 2025, and the real attack surface was never the code. It was the human mind.
According to crypto security leaders speaking with Cointelegraph, the biggest losses this year did not begin with zero-day exploits or broken smart contracts. They began with conversations, messages, urgency, and trust.
Nick Percoco, Chief Security Officer at Kraken, described a hard truth that defined 2025: attackers are no longer forcing their way into systems. They are being invited in.
Data from Chainalysis shows that from January through early December, more than $3.4 billion was stolen across the crypto industry. Nearly half of that total came from a single February incident involving Bybit, where attackers used social engineering to gain access, inject malicious JavaScript, alter transaction details, and silently siphon funds.
This shift marks a critical evolution in crypto crime. Social engineering is not about breaking systems. It is about manipulating people into giving attackers exactly what they need. Credentials. Access. Approval.
Percoco made it clear that the next battlefield for crypto security is psychological, not technical. Security is no longer about building higher walls. It is about recognizing manipulation before panic, authority, or familiarity overrides judgment. The simplest rule now matters most: never hand over the keys just because someone sounds like they belong.
One of the strongest defenses, he argues, is reducing human trust points wherever possible. Automation, strong authentication, and verification at every interaction move security from reactive cleanup to proactive prevention. As AI advances, systems will increasingly detect abnormal behavior before users or even trained analysts realize something is wrong.
Still, technology alone is not enough. In crypto, the weakest link remains human trust, amplified by greed, fear, and FOMO. That emotional pressure is the crack attackers exploit every time.
Security teams are also warning about supply-chain risks. A small breach today can collapse an entire system tomorrow. A single compromised dependency can poison updates, leak credentials, or inject malicious code across platforms like a digital Jenga tower.
Developers are being urged to isolate infrastructure, pin dependencies, verify packages, and review every update before deployment. These habits are no longer best practices. They are survival requirements.
Looking into 2026, experts expect credential theft and social engineering campaigns to grow even more sophisticated. The message is clear. Crypto security is no longer just about protecting wallets and protocols. It is about protecting attention, discipline, and decision-making in an environment designed to rush you.
The future of crypto will reward those who slow down, verify everything, and remember that the most dangerous exploit is the one that convinces you nothing is wrong.
