Top 5 Crypto Hacks That Shook the Industry

The use of cryptocurrency has gained enormous popularity in most parts of the world including Nigeria. Individuals apply crypto to save, invest and even transfer money abroad. However, the issue is really huge hacking. The crypto platforms have lost millions and billions of dollars to hackers. Those attacks have a temporal impact on individuals, enterprises, and even crypto trust.

1. Mt. Gox Hack (2014)

This remains to be one of the most famous crypto hacks ever. Mt. Gox is a giant Bitcoin exchange located in Japan. In the year 2014, there was a theft of 850,000 Bitcoins by hackers; a sum that was over 450 million dollars at that time. But when we view the price of 2025, then that sum is already worth more than 40 billion now! This was a hack which was easy to go unnoticed and thousands of people lost their money forever. This was a painful ordeal to the first time users of bitcoin and is something that creates fear of using crypto exchanges.

2. Ronin Network Hack (2022 )

The Ronin network which informs the well-known crypto game Axie Infinity was hacked in March 2022. They defrauded well above 620 million with the help of counterfeit keys to trick the system. The thing that most people found to be startling was that the breach was not detected until 6 days later. Most of the individuals particularly in nations such as the Philippines lost their income. Even in Nigeria, where crypto gaming is on the increase, people got cautious by hearing this news.

3. FTX (2022)

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FTX is a large and reputable crypto exchange in the world. In November 2022, everything collapsed though. FTX was found to have secretly used money of users and putting it to other utilities. Once they got to know, people panicked and scrambled to withdraw their money, and the platform fell down. More than eight billion dollars were lost. The founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, got arrested and convicted. By the year 2025, the FTX case remains in the memory as one of the largest scandals in the history of cryptocurrency.

4. Poly Network Hack (Poly Network) 2021

This hack occurred in the month of August in the year 2021. The Poly Network is a platform through which crypto transfers one blockchain to another, but hackers stole more than six hundred million dollars of it. But on a pleasant surprise, the hacker gave back nearly the whole amount. He claimed that he simply wanted to demonstrate weakness of the system. Although there was no loss of money in the end, this hack demonstrated how simple it can be when a person wants to get into a crypto system which is not well-guarded.

5. Hack of the Euler finance (2023)

It is one of the latest major hacks. Back in March, hackers stole approximately 200 million in cryptocurrency lending platform known as Euler Finance. The smart contract trick allowed the hacker to do it. The hacker gave back most of the money weeks after he had received a lot of pressure online. However, the accident proved once more that even in 2023 and after, the crypto platforms are not safe enough.

Conclusion

In 2025, it has become apparent that there are numerous giant crypto hacks that have rendered the sector seem not safe. Mt. Gox in 2014 to Euler in 2023, it all comes to the same thing: crypto is strong, and dangerous. Most Nigerians have joined the crypto world to earn money or save value as a result of inflation. Crypto is not yet fully developed and we are hoping that, in future years, the systems will be safer and more secured. However at this point, wherever you are, Nigeria or any other place, keep it smart and safe with your money.