Crypto Losses Drop 60% Despite Rising Scam Risks

The month of December saw a significant and rapid decline in crypto losses due to hacks and exploitation. Total losses amounted to just about US$76 million, as opposed to the US$194.2 million of November.This translated to a 60% drop in total damage throughout the whole sector. The analysts attributed the slump to upgraded security measures along with quicker detection of threats.The improved auditing and monitoring tools were also considered to be a factor in the limitation of major breaches. The drop gave an idea of improvement, but not complete safety at least, in the case of decentralised platforms and digital wallets.A scam, however, managed to overshadow the overall improvement despite the reduced amounts. A single address poisoning incident caused a loss of US$50 million. Although it is a technical exploit, address poisoning is based on deceit only.The attackers make really small transactions from the wallet addresses that look similar to the victim’s. Later, the victim is copying the wrong address and transferring the funds without even knowing it.This method has shown how human error still plays a major role in the losses. The industry was alerted by the magnitude of this case. It demonstrated that fewer attacks do not necessarily translate into lower risks for each.The figures for December gave a hint of improvement, but experts still advised to be careful. Large protocol breaches are less frequent, but smaller ones are still happening. Losses resulted from more than 20 different incidents, which were not very large. This behaviour pattern indicates that the attackers are modifying their strategies rather than giving up.Security teams might be getting better at blocking major exploits. But scammers still go to the users directly. This causes the threat landscape to remain active. Numbers improved, but risks did not disappear.Various types of attacks caused the losses in December. A huge incident occurred when the private keys supposedly linked to a multi-sig wallet got out. This single event led to a loss of ten thousand dollars, worth twenty-seven million three hundred thousand.Among the rest of the incidents were hacked browser extensions and faulty updates. These cyberattacks did not think of smart contracts at all. They rather focused on the users’ devices and points of access. This change in direction shows the shifting of risk from the blockchain code to the code in the user’s behaviour and software tools.A crypto wallet service incident that became very famous took place at the end of December. Users affected lost about six million and one hundred thousand dollars within a very short period.The cause of the problem was a browser extension update that was corrupted. Then the wallet provider announced to pay back the money to the users. However, confidence was still in doubt. Wallets through the browser are still easy to use, yet still the most exposed.This incident highlighted the necessity of having tight controls over updates and of having stringent verification procedures. It also made clearer the use of cold storage for large quantities of money.The fall of December cannot be taken as a guarantee of future safety. The consensus among analysts is that the risk in the crypto market in 2026 will depend on user education as much as on technology.

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