21亿美元被盗！Why 80% of Crypto Hacks Target Wallet Keys & Frontends

The $21 Billion Bleed

In early June 2025, TRM Labs released a report that sent shivers through the DeFi community: over $2.1 billion in digital assets had been stolen in just six months.

That’s not just a number — it’s a red flag screaming from every blockchain explorer. And here’s the kicker: over 80% of those losses came from infrastructure-level attacks — not flashy smart contract bugs or rug pulls, but stealthy breaches of private keys and frontends.

I’ll admit, when I first saw this data, I thought… Wait, we’re still doing this? After years of preaching decentralization and self-custody, we’re losing billions because someone accidentally shared their seed phrase or a dev forgot to sanitize input fields?

Yes. And worse? The average infrastructure hack steals ten times more than other types.

Why Private Keys Are Still Our Achilles’ Heel

Let me be blunt: your private key is like your bank vault’s master combination — except you’re supposed to keep it secret while also using it daily.

Frontend attacks exploit one simple truth: users don’t interact with blockchains directly. They use wallets via websites or apps. And if an attacker compromises that interface (say, by injecting malicious JavaScript), they can redirect funds before you even click “Send”.

This isn’t hypothetical. Last month alone, three major DEX frontends were hijacked via supply chain-style code injection — all because someone reused a compromised npm package.

Meanwhile, private key leaks? Still rampant. Think “I’ll just write this down on my sticky note” or “I trust my cloud backup.” No wonder 67% of small-scale thefts start there.

The Real Cost Isn’t Just Money

Beyond dollars lost, the psychological toll is massive. Every time a user gets scammed via a fake wallet UI or loses funds due to a leaked password, trust erodes.

And that matters — because Web3 wasn’t built for convenience alone; it was built on trustless systems where you control your keys.

But if every single attack comes from human error or poorly secured interfaces… then who really owns the system?

We need better tooling: mandatory frontend audits (yes, even for “small” projects), browser extensions that detect injection attempts (like MetaMask could do), and education campaigns targeting non-tech-savvy users — not just developers.

What You Can Do Today (Besides Panic)

Here’s my no-BS checklist:

• Use hardware wallets for anything above $500 worth of assets.
• Never copy-paste seed phrases anywhere — not even into Notepad with auto-fill enabled.
• Verify website URLs every time before connecting your wallet (a tiny typo can cost big).
• Use tools like OpenZeppelin Defender to monitor contract deployments and detect anomalies early.
• If you’re building an app: treat every frontend component like it’s already compromised. Assume breach at entry point.

Final Thought: Infrastructure Is King (and We’re Failing It)

The most dangerous vulnerabilities aren’t in smart contracts anymore — they’re in how we expose them to real people through flawed interfaces and poor security hygiene. The next wave of crypto innovation won’t come from faster L1s or new tokenomics models… it’ll come from systems so secure at the foundation level that even a careless user can’t break them by accident.