June 2026 sets an anti-record: over 20 crypto project hacks in a single month
The first half of June 2026 has already gone down in crypto industry history as one of the "hottest" periods in terms of the number of hacker attacks. According to analytical platforms, more than 20 incidents related to crypto project hacks have been recorded since the beginning of the month. The latest victim is the Taiko protocol, which lost approximately $1.7 million due to a vulnerability in its bridge mechanism.
Attack on Taiko: Bridges Under Fire
Taiko is an Ethereum-compatible rollup designed to finalize transactions on the mainnet. In the morning, security experts from Blockaid detected an ongoing attack on the platform's bridges. The Taiko team promptly confirmed the hack, stating that all bridges are no longer considered secure and strongly recommended that users immediately withdraw their funds.
Analysts from Lookonchain have already tracked the movement of the stolen assets. From the attacker's wallet, 1.99 million TAIKO tokens (approximately $189,000) were sent to the MEXC exchange. At the time of publication, 870.8 ETH (nearly $1.52 million) remain on the attacker's address.
The Taiko team is working with the Security Council and ecosystem partners to contain the incident. Technical and legal measures against the hacker are also being considered. Four attacker addresses have already been published:
- 0x7506DeA0c38ca0B55364B22424374c5A1ae1B76a
- 0x5fbc60a12bc6635e7d587d8dac52e4b1388b4990
- 0x3cc936b795a188f0e246cbb2d74c5bd190aecf18
- 0x9108828e30f2de407aadb0af677b4a9228e4acd4
Crypto exchanges have already received requests to freeze the deposit of TAIKO tokens until further notice.
Bridges: The Industry's Achilles' Heel
Bridges have traditionally been considered one of the most costly vulnerabilities in cryptocurrency infrastructure. 2026 is no exception: according to DefiLlama, more than 20 hacks have been recorded in the industry since June 1. This confirms that the security issue of cross-chain interactions remains critical.
The public addresses of the attackers allow the community to track the movement of funds. The fate of the stolen assets largely depends on how quickly exchanges can block the flagged wallets.
My expert opinion: June 2026 clearly demonstrates that the industry has yet to develop effective mechanisms for protecting bridges. While developers focus on scaling and compatibility, hackers continue to exploit the same vulnerabilities. Investors should reconsider their risk management strategies, especially when working with cross-chain protocols.