Crypto theft methods continue to evolve, becoming more sophisticated, faster, and harder to detect. Global Ledger's latest report, titled 2025 Laundering Race Report, reveals shocking facts about the time needed to steal victims' funds. The report tracks and analyzes 255 crypto attacks in 2025, with losses amounting to $4.04 billion.
Global Ledger discovered that the speed at which hackers move funds continues to increase. In the second half of 2025, hackers were able to move funds twice as fast as in the first half. In the fastest cases, it took only 2 seconds to move funds.
This means that hackers are already in motion even before the market recognizes an attack. Global Ledger found that these swift, undetected movements occurred in 76.4% of attacks in 2025.
However, the speed of fund transfers is only one aspect of crypto attacks. The 2025 Laundering Race Report states that attackers are in motion 11 hours and 13 minutes before the attacks are reported to the public.
In the first half of 2025, attackers were actually 23 hours and 14 minutes faster. This means that the time between the attack and the report of a successful attack has decreased.
The stolen funds will go through various layers of obfuscation. This is done to make it more difficult to track the identity of the attacker, for example, by using a mixer. A mixer is a service that disguises the flow of crypto transactions. It works by mixing coins from various users, making it difficult to trace the connection between the sender and the recipient.
Therefore, mixers are often involved in cases of crypto laundering. In the fastest crypto theft case in the first half of 2025, the funds were sent to a mixer in 2 minutes and 57 seconds. However, in the second half, it took 8 minutes and 34 seconds to launder the funds.
This data shows that hackers moved faster in the beginning. However, on average, the money laundering process slowed down in the second half of 2025 compared to the first half.
In the first half, hackers needed 8 days to launder cryptocurrency, from withdrawal to final deposit. In the second half, this time increased to 10.6 days.
Attackers do move quickly at the beginning, but as time goes on, security systems begin to react. Attackers are forced to slow down and use multi-layered, time-consuming cryptocurrency laundering strategies.
However, only a small portion of the stolen funds has been recovered. Global Ledger reports that 48.76% of stolen funds are not used for transactions. In other words, these funds are left untouched until the investigation subsides, or they are likely being prepared for further laundering.
Meanwhile, 9.52% of the losses are frozen, and only 6.52% have been successfully returned to the victims.
This means that if your funds are stolen, there is little chance of getting them back. The exploitation of funds happens almost instantly. Your crypto can be moved even before you realize they are stolen.
Therefore, prevention is better than recovery. Learn how to keep your crypto safe in the article Web3 Security: Threats, Wallet Security, and Anti-Scam Tips.
