Crypto sector records highest number of hacks in Q2 2026

The second quarter of 2026 became the most‑hacked period on record for cryptocurrency protocols, with 83 incidents logged by DeFiLlama data. Total value stolen was roughly $755 million to $775 million, far below the $3.56 billion lost in the fourth quarter of 2020 but higher in incident count.

The two biggest attacks were the $293 million KelpDAO breach and the $280 million Drift Protocol exploit, together accounting for more than three‑quarters of the quarter’s losses. Cross‑chain bridge vulnerabilities dominated the attack landscape, responsible for about $351 million of the thefts; the LayerZero OFT bridge flaw alone represented over 38% of stolen funds. Other notable incidents included a $36 million loss at Humanity Protocol, a $10.7 million exploit on THORChain, two separate $2.1 million breaches of abandoned Aztec Connect contracts, and a $1.34 million fake‑LP mint attack on Raydium.

Attack vectors shifted toward frequent, smaller exploits—admin credential compromises, fake token price manipulation, and private‑key theft—rather than the rare, multi‑billion‑dollar breaches of earlier years. As one analyst noted, “Rather than a few giga exploits, it’s been a constant stream of smaller attacks.” Cumulative crypto‑related losses in 2026 reached about $1.3 billion through May, with June’s incidents adding to that total.