Figure Technology and Step Finance Hacks: A Brutal Wake-Up Call for Crypto and Fintech Security

Hackers have once again exposed the soft underbelly of the tech and crypto worlds, with blockchain fintech firm Figure Technology falling victim to a sly social engineering scam and DeFi platform Step Finance losing a staggering $29 million in a separate breach on the Solana blockchain. These incidents aren’t just isolated screw-ups—they’re glaring proof that cybersecurity in fintech and decentralized systems is still a damn mess.

• Figure Technology breached via social engineering; hackers leak 2.5 GB of data.
• Step Finance loses 261,854 SOL ($29M) from treasury wallets on Solana.
• Billions lost annually to scams underline persistent vulnerabilities in crypto and tech.

Figure Technology: Tricked by a Digital Con Artist

Let’s kick off with Figure Technology, a company using blockchain to shake up the fintech space with innovative financial products. Their latest headache came when an employee got played by a social engineering scam—think of it as a con artist in a digital trench coat, sweet-talking their way past the bouncer. These attacks rely on psychological manipulation, often through fake emails, phone calls, or even AI-generated deepfakes mimicking trusted voices, to trick someone into handing over access or sensitive info. As Alethea Jadick, a spokesperson for Figure, bluntly stated:

“The breach occurred when an employee fell for a social engineering scam, allowing hackers to gain access to a few files.”

The company quickly followed up with a statement, admitting that the compromised account let hackers download a “limited number of files.” They managed to stop the unauthorized access in its tracks, hired a forensic firm to figure out what exactly got nabbed, and offered free credit monitoring to anyone potentially affected—a standard move to help guard against identity theft. But here’s where it gets uglier: the infamous hacking group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility, leaking 2.5 GB of stolen data after Figure allegedly refused their demands, as reported by Cryptopolitan. This wasn’t a random hit-and-run either. ShinyHunters hinted at a wider campaign targeting organizations using Okta, a single sign-on service that streamlines secure logins across platforms. They’ve dropped names like the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University as other victims, though hard evidence on those claims is thin. If this is true, it’s a screaming red flag about systemic risks in centralized authentication systems—any company relying on such services could be next in line.

Step Finance: DeFi’s $29 Million Gut Punch

Switching gears to the crypto-specific carnage, Step Finance, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform on the Solana blockchain, got hit hard. For the uninitiated, DeFi aims to rebuild financial systems—think lending, trading, or savings—without middlemen like banks, using smart contracts, which are self-executing bits of code on a blockchain. Solana, meanwhile, is a high-speed, low-cost blockchain often pitted against Ethereum for dominance in the DeFi arena. Step Finance dropped a bombshell on X, admitting to a security lapse:

“We experienced a security breach in some of our treasury wallets a few hours ago, and we are currently looking into it… We will share more details later.”

The damage tallies up to 261,854 SOL tokens, worth about $29 million at a price of $110 per SOL, according to blockchain security firm CertiK. These weren’t direct user funds but treasury wallets—think of them as the platform’s operational piggy bank, holding reserves or fees. The hackers unstaked the tokens, meaning they unlocked SOL previously committed to the network for earning rewards, making them liquid to transfer to an unknown address. Step Finance has brought in cybersecurity experts to investigate, but their silence on the root cause is deafening. Was it a smart contract exploit, a recurring nightmare in DeFi where buggy code gets gamed by attackers? Or an access control failure, like someone losing the keys to the safe? Without answers, users are left sweating, and frankly, this opacity is borderline reckless in a space that preaches trustlessness.

The Human Factor: Our Biggest Weakness

What pisses me off most about these hacks is the human element. Social engineering, as seen with Figure, doesn’t crack code—it cracks us. No fancy encryption or multi-signature setups—where multiple approvals are needed for transactions, like needing two keys for a vault—can save you if someone on your team gets duped into spilling the beans. Imagine getting a call from your ‘boss’ demanding urgent access, only to realize later it was a deepfake voice. That’s the chilling reality Figure’s employee faced, and it’s a tactic growing scarier with AI. Chainalysis, a blockchain analysis firm, pegged last year’s crypto losses to scams and hacks at a mind-blowing $17 billion, with social engineering and AI-powered impersonation leading the charge. That figure covers a mix of outright theft and scams, up from previous years, showing that despite better tech, we’re losing ground. Beyond crypto, the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse reported over 8,000 breach filings across 4,000 incidents by December 2025, affecting at least 374 million people. Whether you’re a blockchain disruptor or a dusty old bank, no one’s safe when humans are the weak link.

Historical Context: Same Old Song and Dance?

These aren’t new problems—they’re reruns of a tired script. Take the Mt. Gox hack of 2014, where 850,000 Bitcoin were stolen, worth billions today, due to shoddy security at a centralized exchange. Or the 2021 Poly Network exploit, where a hacker siphoned $610 million from a DeFi protocol before, bizarrely, returning most of it. Each disaster promised “lessons learned,” yet here we are, with Step Finance’s $29 million heist echoing the same sloppy oversight. Bitcoin maximalists like myself might argue BTC’s core protocol, with its simplicity and decade of battle-testing, sidesteps much of this DeFi drama—no smart contracts, no complex attack vectors. But let’s not get cocky; Bitcoin users still lose millions yearly to phishing or shady custodians. And while I’m rooting for decentralization to upend the status quo, altcoins and blockchains like Solana fill niches Bitcoin wasn’t meant for—speed, programmability, scalability. The catch? That innovation often turns platforms into a hacker’s playground when security lags behind.

Devil’s Advocate: Is Decentralization Worth the Pain?

Let’s play devil’s advocate for a moment. The crypto crowd loves to hype DeFi as the future of finance, unshackled from greedy banks and overreaching regulators. But when Step Finance gets gutted for $29 million or Figure’s data gets paraded by ShinyHunters, are we honestly better off than with traditional systems? Banks might be slow and suffocating, but they’ve got FDIC insurance in the U.S., covering up to $250,000 per depositor if things go south. The SEC, for all its flaws, at least forces some accountability on public firms. In DeFi, it’s the wild west—freedom means you’re on your own when a hacker moseys in and robs the saloon blind. On the flip side, these hacks could be growing pains. Every major breach pushes the industry to tighten up, just as Mt. Gox birthed better exchange standards. I’m all for effective accelerationism, believing we must charge forward with tech, failures be damned, but only if we stop tripping over the same rocks. Mandating open-source audits post-hack could be a start—transparency rebuilds trust faster than empty promises.

Industry-Wide Implications: A Fortress Under Siege

Zooming out, these incidents scream a brutal truth: prevention in crypto and fintech is lagging behind innovation. ShinyHunters’ focus on Okta-based systems exposes a glaring flaw in centralized identity management—when one key unlocks many doors, you’ve just painted a bullseye for organized cybercrime. DeFi’s recurring woes, from flash loan attacks (where hackers exploit pricing glitches with borrowed funds) to admin key compromises, show that rapid development often outpaces proper audits. Bitcoin’s boring reliability might dodge these traps, but even BTC isn’t immune to human error at the user level. The $17 billion loss figure from Chainalysis isn’t just a number—it’s a warning that nation-state-level adversaries are in the game, and most platforms aren’t ready. Yet, there’s a sliver of hope in emerging tech like AI-driven threat detection or decentralized identity solutions that could flip the script on hackers—if we adopt them fast enough.

Practical Tips: Don’t Be the Weak Link

For users, whether you’re a newbie or a crypto OG, these breaches are a reminder to lock down your own defenses. Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) on every account—it’s a second barrier if your password gets nabbed. Watch for phishing red flags: sketchy emails, urgent demands, or URLs that look off by a letter. If you’re dabbling in DeFi, vet platforms hard—check for third-party audit reports on sites like GitHub or ask in community forums about past exploits. For developers and companies, train your damn staff to spot scams and double down on multi-signature setups or cold storage for big funds. Freedom in this space means responsibility—don’t hand hackers the ammo.

What Now? Key Questions and Takeaways

• How did social engineering sink Figure Technology?
  An employee was duped into granting access, letting hackers snag sensitive files—a stark reminder that human error can undo even the best tech safeguards.
• What’s the fallout from Step Finance’s $29 million loss?
  Treasury wallets were drained of 261,854 SOL; while user funds seem untouched for now, the platform’s silence on details fuels distrust in DeFi security.
• Is the crypto and fintech industry doing enough on cybersecurity?
  Hell no—reactive fixes like forensic probes are bandages on a gaping wound, with $17 billion lost last year showing prevention isn’t keeping up with threats.
• Does this signal decentralization’s failure?
  Not quite; hacks expose flaws, but they also force better standards—decentralization’s freedom just demands a brutal learning curve on security.
• What’s the lesson from ShinyHunters’ Okta campaign?
  Targeting centralized login systems like Okta reveals a systemic vulnerability—robust authentication and employee training aren’t optional anymore.

The path to a decentralized, privacy-first financial system is a minefield, and these hacks at Figure Technology and Step Finance are the explosions we can’t ignore. Figure’s lapse shows that even blockchain innovators bleed when humans falter—drill your teams or pay the price. Step Finance’s disaster is a slap in the face to DeFi’s “trustless” mantra; without ironclad audits, it’s just hype. Bitcoin remains the gold standard for resilience, but the broader ecosystem—Solana, Ethereum, you name it—fuels experiments that could redefine money, if they don’t implode first. ShinyHunters and AI-powered scammers aren’t slowing down, so it’s on us—users, developers, companies—to build a fortress worth fighting for. If decentralization is the future, why do we keep centralizing trust in human error? Chew on that as we patch the walls and push forward.