A look ahead at 6 emerging security threats for crypto platforms in 2025

If you want to keep your crypto platform secure, you need to look beyond yesterday's risks at tomorrow’s crypto security trends. Hackers and fraudsters are constantly on the lookout for new ways to exploit exchanges, wallets, DeFi protocols, and other crypto platforms. 

Staying protected requires understanding emerging 2025 crypto threats. This article will provide an overview of the key security challenges your platform needs to protect its business operations and maintain customers’ trust.

Emerging security threats crypto platforms face in 2025 

1. AI-powered fraud and manipulation

Artificial intelligence (AI) is giving attackers powerful new tools. It’s increasingly important to become aware of how attackers use AI to automate and improve attacks against potentially your platform and its customers. Attack examples include:

• Hyper-realistic social engineering: large language models (LLMs) allow attackers to craft incredibly convincing phishing messages, voice calls (vishing), and SMS texts, often personalised at scale. This makes it much harder for your employees or customers to spot malicious attempts aimed at stealing credentials or authorising fraudulent transactions.
  
  
• Deepfakes bypassing security: AI-generated deepfakes are a growing threat. Attackers can use them to try and fool identity verification processes, impersonate executives to authorise large transfers, or trick support staff into giving up sensitive information.
  
  
• Automating the attack lifecycle: attackers increasingly use AI for tasks like finding software vulnerabilities in platform code, generating malware, or attempting automated trading manipulations. This comes together with a rise in demand for AI models built without safety guardrails, specifically designed to help with these kinds of fraudulent activities.
  
  

2. Transaction manipulation and address poisoning

A rising threat in crypto right now is address poisoning. This involves attackers sending tiny amounts of cryptocurrency to legitimate wallets from addresses that closely mimic the recipient's address, often changing just a single character. When users later check their transaction history and copy an address for future transactions, they might unknowingly copy the fraudulent address instead.

This technique is proving increasingly common and effective. For example, in March 2024 an investor accidentally sent over 1,100 Wrapped Bitcoin to a hacker's address due to this method. As attackers become more sophisticated, they're combining these techniques with social engineering to increase success rates.

3. Quantum computing threats

While AI presents immediate challenges, another technological shift is on the horizon: quantum computing. Although large-scale quantum computers capable of breaking today's standard encryption might still be some years away, ignoring it now means risking severe future vulnerabilities:

• Today's encryption is vulnerable: public-key cryptography like ECDSA that secures most blockchains, digital signatures, and secure communications today will eventually be breakable by powerful quantum computers. This isn't a theoretical "if," but a practical "when."
  
  
• 'Harvest now, decrypt later' risk: attackers are aware of this vulnerability. Any sensitive encrypted data they intercept today could be stored and decrypted once quantum capabilities mature. That’s why the time to protect your future-sensitive data is now.
  
  
• Transitioning takes time: migrating your platform's systems to quantum-resistant cryptography isn't a quick fix. Standards bodies like NIST finalised initial post-quantum standards in 2024. In 2025, your business needs to actively understand where current cryptography is used and how you depend on it across your technology stack.

4. Blockchain vulnerabilities and exploits

Beyond future threats like quantum computing, the fundamental building blocks of the crypto ecosystem continue to present immediate security challenges in 2025. As your platform interacts with various blockchains and protocols, be aware of the following persistent risks:

• Smart contract flaws: if your platform interacts with or relies on DeFi protocols, the security of their smart contracts is critical. Complex contract logic, unforeseen economic incentives, or simple coding errors can create vulnerabilities. Exploits targeting these flaws can result in the instant draining of liquidity pools or locked assets.
  
  
• Supply chain attacks: your platform doesn't operate in isolation. Attackers are increasingly targeting third-party dependencies and the software development lifecycle. This involves compromising common code libraries, development tools, or cloud infrastructure components that your systems rely on. Malicious code slipped into these dependencies can grant attackers backdoor access, steal credentials, or manipulate transactions silently.
  
  
• Private key theft and mismanagement: attackers relentlessly pursue private keys through various means. Sophisticated phishing attacks targeting your developers or executives, advanced infostealer malware in wallet software or hardware, insider threats, the list goes on. Given the nature of crypto, losing control of private keys means losing the underlying assets, often irreversibly. 

5. Advanced persistent threats

Beyond opportunistic cybercriminals, your platform may also be a target for highly organised and well-resourced groups known as Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs). These groups, often state-sponsored or operating with significant backing, represent a different class of adversary.

• Stealth and long-term presence: APTs don't typically engage in quick smash-and-grab attacks. Their hallmark is persistence. They aim to gain access quietly, often using custom malware designed to evade standard detection, zero-day exploits, or sophisticated social engineering. Once inside, they can remain hidden for months or even years, gathering information or waiting for an opportune moment to strike.
  
  
• Focus on infrastructure and insiders: APTs often target the core infrastructure of your platform. Think network devices, servers, development environments. Alternatively, they may also seek to compromise privileged insiders. They understand that breaching the perimeter might require exploiting less-obvious entry points or subverting trusted components and personnel.
  
  
• Driven by geopolitics and economics: real-world conflicts, sanctions, and national strategic interests frequently drive APT activity. Events unfolding globally can directly influence the targeting priorities and aggression levels of these groups against crypto platforms.

6. Account takeover and credential compromise

The increasing value of digital assets has made account takeovers a prime target for cybercriminals. Using methods ranging from basic credential stuffing to sophisticated device fingerprinting evasion techniques, attackers gain unauthorised access to customer accounts to drain funds or manipulate holdings.

What makes this threat particularly dangerous in 2025 is the rising sophistication of bypass techniques that can circumvent standard security measures. Attackers increasingly employ device spoofing to mimic legitimate user equipment, behavior pattern replication to avoid anomaly detection, and SIM swapping to intercept two-factor authentication codes. Without multi-layered security that includes behavioral analysis and real-time transaction validation, even accounts with basic protections remain vulnerable to these evolving takeover tactics.

How CoinCover prepares crypto platforms for these security challenges  

For future-proof crypto security, you need the right tools and expertise. CoinCover provides solutions specifically designed to help your crypto platform address some of thesethe security challenges of 2025 and beyond, by focusing on prevention and protection.

CoinCover provides real-time fraud protection that, unlike other monitoring solutions, validates transactions before execution. It prevents fraud at the point of origin, stopping unauthorised transfers before assets ever leave your platform. It’s an approach that’s particularly effective against the increasingly sophisticated AI-driven fraud and manipulation attempts, as it analyses transaction patterns and customer behavior to identify anomalies that signal potential fraud.

Additionally, CoinCover can identify links between new wallets and known scams by tracing historical transaction hops. This forensic approach helps detect sophisticated fraud attempts that might appear legitimate at first glance. For address poisoning threats, this will flag suspicious transactions and give customers the option to approve or reject a transaction that's been identified as anomalous, in real time and before it is signed.

CoinCover uses sophisticated device fingerprinting by collecting information from devices that customers typically use to access their accounts. This technology detects new or unrecognised devices attempting to access accounts and checks with account owners to verify it's actually them using the device. It’s an effective defence against the account takeover attempts targeting crypto platforms and their customers.

Additionally, CoinCover Recover serves as an ultra-fast backup plan when a company or its customers lose access to their crypto asset keys. When the worst happens, CoinCover will help recover access to assets. It’s a turnkey solution that includes automated onboarding, identity verification, secure encryption key generation, and geo-flexible storage, all designed to scale with your platform's growth.

Staying ahead of crypto security threats in 2025

Staying ahead of advanced crypto fraud requires a proactive security strategy. That means embedding resilience into your business operations. It involves ongoing monitoring, adapting controls as threats evolve, and using specialised expertise to address the unique risks of the digital asset ecosystem.

CoinCover's solutions are designed precisely for this environment. By providing advanced real-time monitoring, fraud prevention, and robust protection against asset loss, we enable your platform to adapt with confidence. Our focus on preventing theft and mitigating the impact of breaches helps you address the specific challenges posed by today's and tomorrow's threats.

Don't wait for the next threat to emerge. Take proactive steps to strengthen your defences and build a more resilient future for your platform and its customers. Contact CoinCover today to discuss how our security solutions can help protect your business against the evolving threats of 2025 and beyond.