The second quarter of 2026 set a record for the number of hacks in the crypto industry — 83 incidents.
The second quarter of 2026 will go down in crypto industry history as the period with the highest number of recorded hacks — 83 incidents. This is an absolute anti-record since observations began. However, despite the record frequency of attacks, the total damage amounted to $755.3 million, significantly lower than previous peaks in loss volume.
Major Attacks and Key Trends
According to data from analytical platforms Unfolded and DeFiLlama, the largest incidents were the hack of the KelpDAO protocol for $293 million and the Drift Protocol exploit for $280 million. In the cross-chain bridge segment, damage reached $351 million, with 38% of this amount attributed to the attack on the LayerZero OFT bridge, which was found to be linked to the KelpDAO hack. Another 37% of losses in this segment were caused by compromised administrative access and token price manipulation. In contrast, private key theft accounted for only 5.66% of total losses.
Why Are Attacks Increasing While Damage Is Decreasing?
At first glance, it may seem paradoxical that with a record number of hacks, total losses did not break the historical maximum. The record for hack value is still held by the fourth quarter of 2020 — $3.56 billion. However, in my analysis, this is explained by structural changes in the ecosystem. Dmitry Tarasyuk, Product Director at CORE3 and CER.live, rightly notes that the total value locked (TVL) has decreased from $164 billion to approximately $73 billion. Less liquidity means fewer potential targets for large-scale attacks.
But there is another, more alarming reason: the gap between the pace of protocol development and the maturity of their risk management systems. An example is projects that use a "three out of six" multi-signature scheme but store three keys on a single laptop. This is a blatant violation of basic security principles, making such systems vulnerable even to less sophisticated attacks.
Specific Incidents and Their Consequences
In May, THORChain developers confirmed a hack of the cross-chain protocol totaling $10 million. Following the incident, the team paused the protocol, disabling trading options, liquidity pool operations, and other "sensitive" actions. On June 8, unknown parties compromised wallets associated with the Humanity Protocol project, causing damage of approximately $31 million. These events only confirm the systemic nature of the problem.
Expert Commentary
As an analyst, I see an alarming signal in this data: the industry is experiencing an "epidemic" of small and medium-sized hacks that are becoming the norm rather than the exception. If each quarter brings 80+ incidents, it will undermine trust in DeFi and the crypto ecosystem as a whole. Protocols urgently need to reassess their security approaches — from multi-signatures to smart contract audits. Without this, we risk seeing not just a record number of hacks, but a real crisis of confidence.