The crypto industry is rolling out stronger security measures after a sharp increase in attacks on digital asset holders last year. New research shows some categories of crypto theft rose about 75 percent year over year, even as prices recovered and more institutions entered the market. This surge hit centralized exchanges, DeFi protocols, and individual users who hold funds in self‑custody wallets.
Attackers are stealing more and using smarter techniques, security firms warn. Multi-stage hacks are on the rise, combining smart contract exploits, API misuse, and social engineering in one campaign, reports indicate. Meanwhile, fraudsters are going beyond simple password theft to things like SIM swaps, deepfake-assisted calls, and AI-generated phishing emails that are nearly indistinguishable from the genuine thing.
New Defenses for Institutional and Retail Users
The big custodians and trading platforms are reacting by wrapping more protection around keys and transactions. Many are transitioning to multi-party computation, or MPC, so no single device ever possesses a full private key, and they are imposing multi-step approvals for large withdrawals.
They’re also designing policy engines that prohibit access to dangerous destinations, flag strange activity, and require additional checks when a transaction doesn’t match standard patterns.
Exchanges and wallet providers are also increasing security for users. Security experts recommend hardware security keys, phishing-resistant two-factor authentication, and allow-lists that restrict where users can send funds. Some firms are now looking at on-chain and off-chain data in real time to identify stolen assets, sanctioned addresses, or mixing patterns, and then freezing activity when they find a match.
Rising Concern Over Physical and Future Threats
Not all threats live behind a keyboard. A growing number of so‑called “wrench attacks,” where criminals use threats or violence to force victims to hand over crypto, rose about 75 percent in 2025, according to one recent study. These cases often target known traders, influencers, and business owners who publicly discuss their holdings, which has led more people to hide balances, split storage, and rely on time‑locked or multi‑sig wallets that are harder to drain on demand.
The industry is also looking ahead to quantum risks. TechGaged and other researchers say more than 2.5 trillion dollars in crypto value sits on chains that still lack full protection against powerful future quantum computers. Only a minority of major networks, including Ethereum, Solana, and a few others, are actively testing quantum‑resistant upgrades, and no network has fully deployed them yet.
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