Drastic Drop in Crypto Phishing Losses in 2025, Attacks on ‘Whales’ Declining?

Jakarta, Pintu News – Losses due to phishing attacks in the crypto world have significantly decreased by 83% by 2025, down to around $84 million from nearly $494 million the previous year. Despite the notable decline, the annual report from Web3 security firm Scam Sniffer reveals that this decline hides the darker reality of more sophisticated actors.

The Relationship Between Phishing Losses and Crypto Market Cycles

The annual report shows a strong correlation between fraud incidence and market volatility. Phishing activity peaked in the third quarter, with losses reaching $31 million. This increase coincided with the strongest rise in the price of Ethereum (ETH) during the year, with ETH prices rising close to $5,000 due to high institutional interest in the digital asset.

This supports the view that fraudulent behavior is a probability function of user activity, which increases with retail participation. Although the overall attack volume decreased, the ferocity of individual incidents increased towards the end of the year.

In November, the number of victims dropped by 42%, but the total financial loss jumped by 137%. This anomaly suggests that more sophisticated perpetrators are abandoning low-value targets to focus on high net worth individuals, with the average loss per victim rising sharply to $1,225 during the period.

This signals a split in the threat landscape, where criminal groups are moving from mass-market spam to “whale hunting”, implementing targeted and sophisticated attacks against wealthy individuals.

Also Read: Ethereum (ETH) Approaching Critical Moment, Is January 2026 Time to Surge?

Technology Upgrades and New Vulnerabilities

Technological improvements in the crypto industry have also introduced new vulnerabilities. For example, attackers were quick to capitalize on the “Pectra” update on Ethereum, specifically exploiting EIP-7702.

This feature, designed to improve user experience through account abstraction, was leveraged to combine multiple malicious operations into a single signature, resulting in losses of over $2.5 million in August alone.

Scam Sniffer also pointed out that the total losses from these attacks could be much higher, as the firm only tracks on-chain signature fraud and does not include losses from clipboard malware, social engineering, and direct private key compromise.

Phishers’ Strategy Changes

The change in phishers’ strategies shows their adaptation to evolving market conditions and technology. Leaving behind less effective mass attacks, they now prefer to target potential victims with greater returns.

This reflects the evolution in fraud tactics in the crypto space, where bad actors are constantly looking for new loopholes and techniques to maximize the impact and profit of their activities. This calls for a more dynamic and layered response from the crypto security community to protect users from greater losses.

Conclusion

The decrease in the number of phishing losses in 2025 does not fully reflect the overall picture of security in the crypto ecosystem. While the total numbers show a decrease, the shift in strategy by bad actors shows that the threat is still very real and requires continued attention and innovation in security strategies. The crypto industry must continue to adapt and strengthen defenses to deal with these increasingly sophisticated and targeted tactics.

Also Read: Bitcoin (BTC) Price Surges, Will it Continue to Rise in January 2026?

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Reference

• BeInCrypto. Crypto Phishing Losses Plunge, Whale Hunting Surges. Accessed on January 6, 2026