Key Takeaways
- 2025 is on track to become the worst year on record for crypto thefts.
- Indian crypto exchange CoinDCX was exploited for $44 million.
- ZachXBT exposed the crypto influencer Crypto Beast as being behind a recent pump and dump scheme.
CoinDCX is the latest crypto exchange targeted by hackers, who stole assets worth $44 million in a major security breach on Friday, July 18.
On Tuesday, July 22, ZachXBT exposed the crypto influencer Crypto Beast as being behind a recent pump and dump scheme centered on $ALT token.
The latest incident brings the total value of crypto stolen so far in 2025 to over $2.2 billion, putting it on a path to be the worst year yet for crypto thefts.
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Crypto Beast Tied to $ALT Pump and Dump
Earlier in July, Crypto Beast started aggressively promoting $ALT, which launched on July 9 and saw its price rise dramatically within a few days.
However, after wallets holding millions of dollars worth of the token dumped it on July 14, triggering a massive price crash within minutes, the community quickly turned on Crypto Beast.
According to ZachXBT’s analysis, Crypto Beast’s public wallet “is directly tied to the bundled wallets that sold $ALT.”
Following ZachXBT’s exposé, Crypto Beast first deleted posts related to $ALT, and later deactivated their X account entirely.
The incident is the second crypto project Crypto Beast has promoted that ended with large wallets pulling their funds in an apparently coordinated exit.
As pointed out by X user dethective, $ALT and $ALPHA, which were both promoted by Crypto Beast, rugged at a $180 million market cap.
CoinDCX Exploit
One of the first to identify the CoinDCX exploit was ZachXBT, who raised a warning flag on his Telegram channel a full 17 hours before CEO Sumit Gupta acknowledged the incident.
The attacker drained a total of 4,443 ETH and 155,830 SOL, with a combined value of approximately $44 million.
The Indian exchange suspended withdrawals over the weekend, but they had been reinstated for most users by Tuesday, July 22.
In a post on X, CoinDCX sought to alleviate user concerns.
“We absorbed the entire loss from our corporate treasury with no impact on user funds,” the post stated.
“Our balance sheet and treasury are completely healthy,” it added.
Crypto Hacks Top $2.2 Billion in 2025
In the first six months of 2025, crypto worth over $2.17 was stolen from platforms and individuals, Chainalysis’ mid-year crypto crime update reported.
Propelled by the $1.5 billion ByBit hack, the largest crypto heist ever, 2025 has already surpassed the total value stolen in 2024 and could become the worst year yet for crypto crime.
Compared to 2022, previously the worst year on record for crypto thefts, the cumulative value stolen so far this year is further ahead. In 2022, $3.8 billion worth of crypto was stolen from platforms and services.
Even before the CoinDCX exploit, Chainalysis estimated that at the current rate, the yearly total could climb to $4.3 billion by the end of 2025.
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James Morales is CCN’s blockchain and crypto policy reporter. He has been working in the news media since 2020, writing about topics such as payments, banking and financial technology. These days, he likes to explore the latest blockchain innovations and the evolving landscape of global crypto regulation.
With an educational background in social anthropology and media studies, James uses his platform as a journalist to explore how new technologies work, why they matter and how they might shape our future.
