Crypto hack losses fall 60% in December as PeckShield reports

Crypto-related hacks and cybersecurity exploits caused roughly $76 million in losses in December, marking a 60% drop from November’s $194.2 million, according to blockchain security firm PeckShield.

PeckShield said there were 26 major crypto exploit incidents during the month, showing a decline in total damage despite continued attack activity.

One of the largest losses involved a single user who lost $50 million to an address poisoning scam, PeckShield said.

Address poisoning scams work by sending small transactions from wallet addresses that closely resemble legitimate ones, tricking users into misdirecting funds.

PeckShield explained that attackers often match the first and last four characters of a wallet address to increase the chance of deception.

Another significant incident saw about $27.3 million lost after a private key leak in a multi-signature wallet hack, PeckShield said.

PeckShield cited the Christmas Trust Wallet browser extension exploit, which drained around $7 million in user funds, as a notable December attack.

The company also highlighted a $3.9 million hack affecting the Flow protocol during the same period.

PeckShield warned that browser-based wallets remain more vulnerable due to their constant internet connection.

Security experts continue to recommend hardware wallets for long-term storage as they keep private keys offline.

PeckShield advised users to carefully verify every character of destination wallet addresses to avoid address poisoning scams.