Recent data circulating in the cryptocurrency space is a bit frightening: in just the year 2025, thefts targeting exchanges and encryption institutions have caused losses of 2.02 billion dollars. This is not the most terrifying part - historically, this type of organized large-scale theft has accumulated to 6.75 billion dollars. Moreover, the trend is worsening, with a big pump of 51% compared to the same period in 2024.

The tactics of hackers are upgrading. They are no longer satisfied with traditional technical cracking; instead, they are engaging in espionage. What is the latest attack method? Directly sending in an undercover agent. Hackers forge resumes to infiltrate Web3 companies, exchanges, or digital asset custody institutions, lurking within to build trust, and ultimately gain system permissions to steal. How effective is this "insider" model? Once successful, the losses are often astronomical.

To be honest, although everyone is discussing the risks of DeFi, the real target of these black market activities is actually centralized platforms. The leakage of private keys has become the biggest disaster zone. Data from the first three months of 2025 shows that 88% of losses in encryption assets come from stolen private keys of centralized exchanges. Moreover, the institutional effect is very strong— the top three hacker incidents account for 69% of the total market losses.

How to cash out stolen coins? The tricks here are completely different from those of ordinary hackers. General thieves like to quickly sell off using some DEX or decentralized protocol, but large organized crime groups operate systematically: they leverage the Chinese OTC market and escrow services (there is a large regulatory gap here, with usage rising by over 1000%), obfuscate tracking through cross-chain bridging, then use mixers to launder the funds, and finally cash out the encryption assets into real money through specialized Asian money laundering networks.

This is not just a technical issue; it has evolved into a complete black market ecosystem. Exchanges, wallets, and OTC merchants, each link could be a risk point.