Crypto Theft Hit Nearly $400 Million in January 2026
Crypto theft reached nearly $400 million in January 2026, dominated by a single $284 million phishing attack.Summary
In January 2026, the cryptocurrency industry suffered approximately $370.3 million in losses across 40 recorded incidents, according to CertiK data, with total losses exceeding $400.3 million when including a $30 million Step Finance exploit. The month was defined by a devastating social engineering scam where a lone investor lost $284 million in Bitcoin and Litecoin on January 16 after being tricked by an attacker impersonating Trezor support into revealing a hardware wallet recovery seed phrase. This single theft accounted for about 71% of the month's total adjusted losses. The stolen assets were quickly rotated into Monero (XMR), causing a price rally for the privacy coin and highlighting regulatory challenges regarding illicit capital flight. Beyond phishing, smart contract vulnerabilities also caused significant losses, including a $26.6 million exploit on Truebit, while other victims included Swapnet, Saga, and Makina Finance, underscoring that user-level security remains a critical vulnerability.
(Source：BeInCrypto)