The crypto industry has set an anti-record for the number of hacks: 83 incidents in a quarter — a new historical high.
The second quarter of 2026 became the most "fruitful" for hacker attacks in the history of the cryptocurrency industry. Analysts recorded 83 protocol hacks — an absolute record in terms of the number of incidents. The total damage from these attacks amounted to $755.3 million, which, however, is not a record figure in terms of loss volume.
The largest events of the quarter were the hack of the KelpDAO protocol for $293 million and the Drift Protocol exploit for $280 million. Interestingly, in the cross-chain bridge segment, losses reached $351 million, with 38% of that amount attributed to the incident involving the LayerZero OFT bridge, which is directly linked to the attack on KelpDAO. Another 37% of the damage came from compromised administrative access and token price manipulation, while private key theft accounted for only 5.66% of the total losses.
Despite the record number of incidents, the second quarter of 2026 was not the most expensive in terms of the volume of stolen funds. This anti-record still belongs to the fourth quarter of 2020, when the damage amounted to $3.56 billion. This dynamic is explained by fundamental changes in the ecosystem: the total value locked (TVL) decreased from $164 billion to approximately $73 billion. As a result, attackers target less liquidity but do so much more frequently.
The key problem, in my opinion, is the gap between the speed of protocol development and the maturity of their risk management systems. Many projects implement innovations faster than they can build adequate protection. For example, some teams use a "three out of six" multi-signature scheme but store three keys on a single laptop. This is a critical mistake that makes the entire system vulnerable.
In May, the THORChain team confirmed a $10 million hack of the cross-chain protocol, after which it suspended the service, including trading options and liquidity pool operations. And on June 8, unknown parties compromised wallets associated with the Humanity Protocol project, causing $31 million in damage.
My analysis: The current situation is a wake-up call for the entire industry. The increase in the number of attacks amid a decrease in total damage suggests that hackers have become more targeted, exploiting weaknesses in governance and security rather than simply "draining" liquidity from large pools. Investors and developers should prioritize smart contract audits and key management, rather than just expanding protocol functionality.