PeckShield: Crypto Hack Losses Fall to $26.5 Million in February, an 11-Month Low

Onchain finance relies on public code and near-instant settlement, allowing attackers to move compromised assets within minutes after breaching private keys, bridges or smart contracts. Immunefi said the crypto industry lost about $972 million across 207 hacks in the first half of 2026. While losses stayed below $1 billion, the record incident count underscored the persistent security risk facing protocols, exchanges and investors.

Immunefi said in August that crypto hacks caused about $110 million in losses during July 2026. AFX Trade lost $24.15 million in a bridge attack on July 22, while Bonzo Lend suffered a roughly $9.05 million exploit on July 11. The platform also said its audit competitions had generated more than 10,000 vulnerability reports and paid over $6 million to researchers, with 80% of participating projects uncovering critical flaws previously missed by top-tier traditional audits.

Crypto security risks are increasingly concentrated outside smart-contract code, in the private keys, signers and governance systems that control access to digital assets. Security firm Immunefi says an audit can verify how a protocol’s code behaves without protecting the wider operational structure. Compromised credentials, excessive signer authority or weak governance can therefore allow attackers to move funds even when the underlying contracts contain no exploitable flaw.

As of July 30, 2026, cryptocurrency hacks had resulted in $972 million of stolen assets worldwide. Immunefi’s assessment found that most of the losses stemmed from failures involving private keys, authorized signers and governance controls rather than smart-contract vulnerabilities. The findings shift attention toward access management, key storage and approval procedures, underscoring that passing a code audit does not amount to a guarantee of system-wide security.

The cryptocurrency industry has long faced the risk of breaches targeting exchanges, DeFi protocols and wallets, with security firm CertiK tracking losses from onchain attacks. While the decline in total losses may appear encouraging, it does not mean defenses have improved in tandem. Attack methods and the damage caused by individual incidents remain key measures of the ecosystem’s security.

Crypto hacks caused $1.32 billion in losses from January through June 2026, down about 46.8% from the same period in 2025, according to CertiK. The firm warned, however, that the decline could create a false impression of improved security. Attackers are becoming increasingly sophisticated and destructive, while North Korean hackers remain a major threat.

Cryptocurrency platforms and cross-chain bridges hold large amounts of onchain assets, leaving them vulnerable to attackers who can drain substantial sums quickly when smart contracts or code contain flaws. Crypto security firm CertiK tracks such losses, with monthly changes reflecting cybersecurity risks across the industry and the impact of major attacks.

CertiK reported that losses from crypto exploits totaled $68.3 million in May 2026, down about 90% from $650 million in April. The month's larger losses stemmed from exploits involving the Verus Protocol cross-chain bridge and THORChain. By attack vector, code vulnerabilities were the leading cause of losses.