A new report from the Swiss Blockchain Analytics Company Global Ledger shows that more than $ 3.01 billion have been stolen throughout 119 crypto hacks in the first half of 2025, which has exceeded total for all 2024. Although more concerned is a trendy over the rising volume: speed.
The Report The onchain data was tied to each exploitation, and monitored how fast the attacks had switched funds through mixers, bridges and centralized exchanges. By swelling at the time between the initial incident and the final end of the laundering, researchers found that laundering now occurs in minutes, often before a hack was disclosed.
According to the report, the laundering was fully completed before the violation became public in about 23% of cases. To many others, the stolen funds moved when the victims realized what had happened. In such cases, by the time a hack is reported, it may be too late.
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How fast is it fast?
While hackers are getting faster and better in laundering stolen crypto, anti-money laundering (AML) systems and virtual asset service providers (Vasps) are difficult to maintain.
In some cases, laundering occurs almost immediately. In the fastest incident, funds were moved four seconds after exploitation, with full laundering completed in under three minutes.
Generally, 31.1% of laundering was completed within 24 hours, while public disclosure of hacks lasted an average of 37 hours. In attacks that usually move the funds 15 hours after the violation, they often have a 20-hour head of start before anyone noticed, according to the report.
Of the nearly seven to 10 incidents (68.1%), the funds moved before the hack was publicly reported through press releases, social media or alert system. And in about one in four cases (22.7%), the launch process was fully completed before any internal or public disclosure.
As a result, only 4.2% of stolen funds were recovered in the first half of 2025.
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New regulations, new responsibilities for CEXs
The report also stated that 15.1% of all laundered crypto in the first six months of 2025 went through centralized exchanges (CEX), and compliance teams often had just 10-15 minutes to hinder the suspected transactions before the funds disappeared.
CEXs remain the most target point of entry for attacks, responsible for 54.26%of total losses in 2025, beyond the contract exploitation contract exploitation (17.2%) and personal purse violations (11.67%).
As hackers improve, ticket -based adherence processes that are often used by exchanges are no longer sufficient. Instead, the report suggests that the exchanges must adopt real-time, automatic monitoring and responding systems that detect and stop prohibited activity before the funds are fully laundered.
In other words, speed should be matched at speed. If the laundering is complete within minutes, CEXs will require detection and response systems that operate faster.
New laws like Genius Act.
Roman storm tests feature a growing hope: Stop the crime before it happens
The ongoing test of the Tornado Cash Developer Roman Storm emphasizes a growing move on how regulators view the crypto responsibility. In the middle of the case is the question: Should developers and platforms be fulfilled to prevent the prohibited activity they may expect?
Many believe it should. US prosecutors said During the trial “the storm has the ability to implement controls that may prevent illicit use, but choose not to.”
Storm faced with multiple charges, one of which is conspiracy to make money laundering. Prosecutors said his platform, Tornado Cash, helped facilitate more than $ 1 billion in illicit transactions, including funds linked to the North Korean Lazarus group. If convicted, he may face up to 45 years in prison.
Storm’s case can be a moment of water for open-source development and privacy tools. Many argue that the prosecution of a developer for writing a code, especially for a decentralized protocol such as Tornado Cash, sets a dangerous earlier that can chill change and break the freedom of the software.
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