Crypto Hacks Drain $1.1B in First Half of 2026 Amid 212 Security Incidents
The first half of 2026 was probably the most energetic six months for crypto exploits on file.
This is in accordance with a brand new report from Blockaid, which exhibits hackers stole $1.1 billion throughout 212 incidents.
Crypto Hacks Top $1.1B in H1 2026
The Blockaid report found that 4 main incidents involving KelpDAO, Drift, Resolv, and CoW Swap made up roughly $707 million of the entire losses.
KelpDAO suffered the most important loss, after hackers stole $292 million value of crypto by faking a cross-chain message that siphoned off the protocol’s Ethereum reserves. Drift Protocol, a perpetuals alternate constructed on the Solana chain, additionally suffered a equally big hit, because it was exploited for $285 million inside 12 minutes.
Blockaid linked each instances to TraderTraitor, a state-sponsored North Korean subset of the bigger Lazarus Group. Humanity Protocol’s $32 million loss was additionally linked to the identical attacker cluster, bringing DPRK-linked losses to $609 million, which is about 55% of all funds stolen throughout the interval.
The tempo of assaults additionally elevated by the yr, with month-to-month incidents going from 18 in January to 57 in June. April proved to be probably the most painful month, because the KelpDAO and Drift Protocol hacks wiped out a mixed $577 million to push complete losses in that month to $635 million.
Privileged key misuse was the costliest assault sort in the primary half of 2026, with losses of roughly $790 million, or near three-quarters of all funds stolen in the interval, stated Blockaid. Unbacked mint exploits got here second in worth, led by the $80 million Resolve breach. But the hacks on the code stage induced probably the most casualties, accounting for almost 4 out of 5 assaults by depend.
Attack Vectors Change as New Threats Emerge
The report named AI brokers as a brand new goal after hackers in May used a immediate injection assault to idiot Bankr’s AI agent into approving an unauthorized transaction for about $216,000.
Cross-chain bridges additionally took a serious hit, with attackers breaching the verification methods of KelpDAO and Taiko by solid proofs and attestations accepted by the vacation spot chains.
In addition, safety groups confronted newer assault strategies in 2026, with Blockaid figuring out 4 incidents involving EIP-7702 pockets delegation assaults, the place a pockets can hand management to a sensible contract. Legacy sensible contracts additionally proceed to be a standard vulnerability, with knowledge displaying round 5 instances in May and June, together with two involving Aztec Connect and one focusing on Raydium’s AMM V3.
Recent incidents exterior the report interval confirmed the identical strain on crypto infrastructure. For occasion, on July 23, AFX Trade, BSquaredNetwork, and Verus had been hit in separate assaults on the identical day that collectively induced greater than $35 million in losses. Recall that Verus had already suffered one other exploit about two months earlier, and Blockaid linked each incidents to the identical bridge contract and bug class.
Recovery outcomes diversified relying on the sort of assault. Per the report, code-related incidents typically allowed groups to freeze funds or negotiate returns, whereas assaults involving stolen keys normally ended with the cash shifting by mixers or cross-chain routes.
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