A $163 million theft was declared in August as hackers shift their strategy

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Crypto hackers and scammers stole more than $163 million from crypto space over 16 separate attacks in August.

Blockchain security company Peckshield said in an X post on Monday that losses in August were up 15% compared to July.

Cybersecurity experts told Coinelegraph that the August increase was driven by hackers shifting their efforts to high-value targets and driving up crypto prices.

sauce: Peckshield

Crypto hackers focus on high-value targets

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Peckshield said there was a strategic change from hackers last month as hackers were focused on intensive exchanges and other high-value individual targets.

Two incidents in particular have inflated the total for August. Bitconnor, a victim of a social engineering attack, lost 783 Bitcoin (BTC), worth $91 million at the time, in one transaction after a bad actor pretended to be crypto exchanges and hardware wallet support.

The other was Turkish Cryptocurk exchange. After the attacker accessed the hot wallet, nearly $50 million in stolen cryptography was seen. This was also the second major security breaches of the exchange, in June 2024, with another identical attack.

However, according to Peckshield, the number of hacks has been downwards, with 16 recorded in August, with 17 and 20th June.

“Looking at a wide range of photos over the past eight months, the total number of hacks shows a downward trend. This is positive news and suggests improved security across the ecosystem.”

The crypto price boom is also a factor

Hank Huang, CEO of Kronos Research, told Cointelegraph that crypto exploits will rise frequently along with crypto prices, creating valuable rewards to hit key targets.

Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) experienced their all-time highs in August. Bitcoin raided over $124,000 on August 14th, and on August 24th, Ether raided over $4,946.

“The August surge highlights how attackers can use sophisticated phishing and social engineering to expose operational weaknesses,” Huang added.

Related: Crypto-seed phrases, front-end hacks drive record losses in 2025: TRM Lab

Total losses have fallen, with $176 million lost to hacks in June, down 54.2% from May when scammers acquired $385 million. In July, a hacker lost $142 million.

However, Huang speculates that losses could continue to increase annually, not only due to rising crypto prices, but also the slow and stable delays in improving security technologies to prevent these attacks.

New technologies can mitigate the impact on crypto

Huang also said that new technology and better security measures could exist on the horizon, which would help to curb losses in the long term.

“As emerging technologies progress, AI-driven improvements and stronger security models should help mitigate future impacts,” he said.

Meanwhile, Peckshield said high-value goals, such as businesses and individuals with large crypto-holdings, need to ensure strong security measures are in place.