How crypto criminals stole 713 million

pTheres something uniquely agonising about having your cryptocurrency stolen All transactions are recorded on a digital ledger known as a blockchain so even if someone takes your money and puts it in their own crypto wallet it is still visible onlineppYou can see your money there on the public blockchain but theres nothing you can do to get it back says Helen who lost around 315000 250000 to thievesppShe likens it to watching a burglar pile up your prized possessions on the other side of an impassable chasmppFor seven years Helen and her husband Richard not his real name both UK residents had been buying and stacking up crypto coins called CardanoppThey liked the idea of investing in a digital asset that had the potential to rise dramatically in value unlike funds saved in more conventional ways They knew it was riskier but they were careful to keep their digital keys safeppBut somehow hackers got into their cloud storage account where they kept information about their crypto wallets and how to access themppIn February 2024 after a small test transfer the criminals sent all the couples coins to their own digital wallets in a swift and silent attackppThe couple then watched for months as their money was moved from one wallet to another powerless to do anything The inherent contradiction with crypto currency is that all transactions are publicly trackable but users can be publicly untraceable if they chooseppHelen and Richard are not wealthy She is a personal assistant he is a composer and they had high hopes for their Cardano investmentsppWed been buying these coins for so long We used every scrap of money we could find to buy more says Richard Aside from my parents deaths this theft is the worst thing to happen to meppEver since Helen has been on a mission to recover their money She obtained detailed reports from various police forces and the Cardano developers Now even though she has the wallet address of the criminals there is nothing anyone can do to unmask themppTheir plan is to save up enough to engage private investigators to try to trace the hackersppIt leaves you with a feeling of helplessness she says but I am going to keep tryingppA survey carried out for the Financial Conduct Authority FCA in August 2024 suggested that approximately 12 of British adults owned cryptoassets equivalent to about seven million peopleppGlobally it has been estimated that 560 million people are now crypto owners But as ownership rose so did theft The pandemic ushered in a surge in the value of crypto coins and with it an explosion in attacks on the industryppAnd 2025 was another bumper year for crypto criminals with total thefts standing at more than 34bn 25bn according to investigators at blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis The annual figure has remained in the same ballpark since 2020ppMost of the money is being stolen in massive cyber attacks on crypto companies For example North Korean hackers swiped 15bn 11bn from crypto exchange Bybit in February 2025ppThe losses in this case and the vast majority of others are covered by the deeppocketed crypto firms with little impact on individuals But 2025 also saw an increase in the number of attacks on individual crypto investorsppChainalysis research says these individual attacks rose from 40000 in 2022 to 80000 last yearppHacking scamming or coercing of individuals accounted for an estimated 20 of all crypto value stolen estimated at 713m 532mppBut the company adds that the number could be far higher as not all victims will choose to report thefts publicly When this happens you could be left on your ownppMany thefts or scams in traditional finance are covered by banks or card companies In the UK you can complain to the financial ombudsman service and may be compensated by the financial services compensation schemeppCrypto remains largely unregulated in the UK and highrisk says the FCA If something goes wrong it is unlikely you will be protected so you should be prepared to lose all your moneyppA stark reminder of this comes if you search online for Binance account hacked Binance is the worlds largest crypto exchange with a reported 14m UK users but the page on its website offering advice to victims of theft is blocked in the UKppThe company has not been accepting new UK clients since 2023 because it is not authorised to operate by the FCA Yet criminals dont care where victims are and people are being targeted all over the world indiscriminatelyppChainalysis has described these attacks on individuals as the underdocumented frontier for crypto crimeppThey put the volume of crimes down to the numbers of people entering the crypto world as investors as the value of coins has risen and argue that improved security practices at major services could have pushed attackers toward individuals perceived as easier targetsppThen there is the fact that the more crypto you hold and the more public you are about it the more likely you are to be targeted small time holders or hodlers as the community calls them are far less likely to be affectedppAs for the thieves they could be anywhereppIn October blockchain researchers from Elliptic a crypto analysis company warned that North Korean statesponsored hackers are increasingly targeting wealthy cryptocurrency owners There are plenty of young scammers and hackers from other countries tooppIn December in the US 22yearold Evan Tangeman pleaded guilty to being part of a group of crypto thieves calling themselves the Social Engineering Enterprise who are accused of stealing more than 260m 194m between October 2023 and May 2025ppProsecutors allege they targeted the cryptorich using hacked databases tricking victims into thinking they were cryptocurrency exchanges and persuading them to transfer coinsppMembers of the gang who were all young men mostly in the US are said to have spent the stolen coins on private jets expensive cars and luxury handbags that they would give away at nightclubsppIn some cases prosecutors say the gang organised home breakins to steal hardware containing the keys to crypto stashesppBurglaries and muggings have become so common there is now a term for them in the crypto community wrench attacks so called because criminals have been known to threaten victims with spannersppLast April crypto criminals in Spain tried to force a man and woman to part with their cryptocurrencyppSpanish police said the man was shot in the leg and he along with his partner were held captive for several hours while the criminals tried to access their crypto wallets Eventually the woman was released but her partner remained missing with his body later found in woodlandppFive people were arrested in Spain in connection with the case while four others in Denmark were chargedppThere have been several similar cases in France including one when an attempted kidnap was captured on videoppAnother case in early 2025 saw David Balland cofounder of Ledger a cryptocurrency security company abducted with his wife from their home in central FranceppDays later police rescued them but Ballands finger was cut off during the extortion attemptppThen last month UK police arrested six people after masked men stopped a car travelling between Oxford and London and forced one of the occupants to transfer cryptocurrency valued at 15mppPhil Ariss director of UK Public Sector Relations at blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs has previously said that criminal groups already comfortable with using violence to achieve their goals were always likely to migrate to crypto ppAs long as theres a viable route to launder or liquidate stolen assets it makes little difference to the offender whether the target is a highvalue watch or a crypto walletppCryptocurrency is now firmly in the mainstream and as a result our traditional understanding of physical threat and robbery needs to evolve accordinglyppIts difficult to determine exactly how prevalent wrench attacks are as few are publicly reported But it appears as though these types of thefts are a small part of the growing issue of personal crypto theftsppAnd many criminals rely on tried and trusted hacking or scam techniques that are becoming easier thanks to the abundance of data stolen in massive cyber attacks on companiesppData is a common problem as Bitcoin millionaires are becoming so frequent and there are stolen databases that are enriching the target list all the time says Matthew Jones founder of Haven a crypto security firmppA data breach at Kering the parent company of luxury brands including Gucci and Balenciaga is a case in point according to one hacker interviewed by the BBCppAs well as millions of customer names and contact details the databases show how much money people had spent at the storesppThe hacker the BBC spoke to says he purchased the spreadsheets for 300000 224000 in order to target the biggest spendersppHe claims to have used the information along with details from another stolen database to scam multiple Coinbase users out of at least 15m 11m in cryptoppThe criminal provided confirmation that he was in possession of the stolen data and proved to the BBC that he owned 700000 522000 in Bitcoin which he says came from one victimppI buy hacked databases and crossreference them with others to check for rich people and for uptodate phone numbers and emails Im still going down the list and tripled my money very fast he claimedppThe hacker wouldnt give any details about himself other than the fact that he is a student at a US universityppWhen asked if he considered himself a hacker or a scammer he said Neither I am only interested in making moneyppKering did not respond to a request for comment about this but has previously told the BBC that its IT systems had been secured after the data breach and emphasised that no bank account numbers credit card information or governmentissued identification numbers had been stolen in the attackppMatthew Jones from Haven tells me that he himself has had crypto stolen and the experience prompted him to develop a crypto wallet with extra security featuresppFeatures like continuous biometric checking to make sure that only the owner can send coins and geofencing to block any transactions outside someones home or work are now needed he says He is also building a panic button into the digital walletppPeople are walking around with millions of dollars in crypto these days and wallets have no ceiling on how much can be held or how much can be stolen in one go he saysppMatthew Joness crypto wallet is all about what the industry champions as self custodyppHavens app is similar to those of Metamask and Trustwallet Other companies like Trezor and Ledger offer physical devices like USB memory sticks but the idea is the same you can be your own bankppBut with that added freedom comes added risk as you dont have any protections at allppIf your coins are stolen from your own self custody wallet you cant even go to a crypto exchange to complainppAsked if the freedom of being your own bank outweighs the increasing risks Jones insists it doesppBanks arent truly answerable to their customers and they hold the power to freeze or close your account based on broad often vague reasons he arguesppHe also says he objected to being asked by traditional financial institutions things like why he was moving money out of an accountppHelen and Richard lost all their coins after choosing to be their own bank The factor that made it particularly painful was the fact that much of the money came from the sale of Richards mothers house after her deathppMy mothers money has gone Richard says All that grafting she had done for my future and it was stolen Weve had to sell musical instruments and our car and we were briefly homelessppYet they arent entirely giving up on cryptocurrency If they get their lost money back or accumulate enough in savings they plan to get straight back into crypto investingppTop image credit Getty ImagesppBBC InDepth is the home on the website and app for the best analysis with fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions and deep reporting on the biggest issues of the day Emma Barnett and John Simpson bring their pick of the most thoughtprovoking deep reads and analysis every Saturday Sign up for the newsletter hereppA couple expecting to pay 50 for a locksmith say they ended up forking out more than 5000ppAn undercover reporter catches a serial fraudster back on a dating app days after leaving jailppThe 81yearold was contacted on Facebook by the fraudster who said he was linked to the Welsh singerppThose taking up fake job offers may find themselves in a world of troubleppThe countys police commissioner says behaviour falls well short of the standards we all expectppCopyright 2026 BBC All rights reserved The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites Read about our approach to external linkingpp p