Can you track your cryptocurrency if it gets stolen? Erm….NO!
Theft carries a unique and excruciating sting: you can often watch your stolen assets sit in a digital wallet, visible on the blockchain’s public ledger, yet completely beyond recovery. This modern form of financial loss is becoming an alarmingly common story as criminals increasingly target the crypto-wealthy.
According to a recent BBC story, a chilling warning came in October from blockchain analysts at Elliptic, highlighting that state-sponsored North Korean hackers are systematically pursuing high-net-worth crypto owners. They are far from alone. From sophisticated global syndicates to young, tech-savvy thieves, the threat landscape is crowded and evolving.
In the United States, 22-year-old Evan Tangeman recently pleaded guilty to his role in a group dubbed the “Social Engineering Enterprise,” accused of stealing over $260 million between late 2023 and mid-2025. Prosecutors say the group used sophisticated phishing techniques, impersonating legitimate exchanges to deceive victims into surrendering their digital coins.
The attackers’ target lists are constantly enriched by a flood of stolen personal data. “Bitcoin millionaires are becoming so frequent, and there are stolen databases that are enriching the target list all the time,” notes Matthew Jones, founder of crypto security firm Haven.
One hacker pointed to a data breach at luxury conglomerate Kering, parent company to Gucci and Balenciaga, as a prime example. The compromised data didn’t just include names and contacts; it revealed how much individuals had spent, painting a vivid picture of their potential wealth.
Ownership has skyrocketed, with an estimated 560 million crypto owners globally, including about seven million in the UK. But as adoption grew, so did criminal opportunity. The 2025 global tally for crypto theft reached a staggering $3.4 billion, a figure that has remained persistently high since 2020, according to researchers at Chainalysis.
While the bulk of this value comes from massive cyber-heists against exchanges, like the $1.5 billion North Korean attack on Bybit in February 2025, a more personal threat is rising.
Individual investor attacks doubled from 40,000 in 2022 to 80,000 in 2025, accounting for an estimated $713 million in stolen value. Chainalysis cautions the true figure is likely far higher, given widespread underreporting.
Here lies the crux of the crisis for individual victims: in traditional finance, banks, regulators, and compensation schemes often provide a safety net. In the largely unregulated crypto sphere, that net vanishes. The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority bluntly states that crypto is “high-risk” and if something goes wrong, “it is unlikely you will be protected.”
A stark symbol of this vulnerability can be found by searching for “Binance account hacked.” Despite the platform reporting 1.4 million UK users, its webpage offering advice to theft victims is blocked in the country.
For many who see their digital wealth vanish, the journey ends in silence and loss, with nothing to do but watch the immutable blockchain record what they can no longer claim.
Where is hope?
