Crypto hacks hit record high in H1 2026 as losses top $1 billion, Blockaid says

Crypto projects lost more than $1 billion to hacks during the first half of 2026 as the number of verified exploits climbed to a record, according to Blockaid.

In a report published Tuesday, Blockaid called H1 2026 the “most-hacked half-year on record,” referring to the number of incidents rather than the value stolen. Dollar losses remained below the year-earlier total, which was inflated by the $1.5 billion Bybit exploit.

"H1 2026 was a significant half-year for onchain security," the firm wrote. "In the first six months alone, Blockaid verified more exploit incidents than it recorded in all of 2025."

North Korea-linked hackers accounted for the largest share of the money stolen during H1 2026. Blockaid attributed both the $285 million Drift exploit and the $292 million KelpDAO exploit to DPRK-linked actors.

Blockaid expects attacks linked to North Korea to persist. “The working pattern of LinkedIn social engineering leading to multisig signer compromise produced two of the four largest H1 incidents, and there is no structural reason for it to stop,” the firm said.

Blockaid's totals differed from stats reported by Immunefi in its June 2026 Ecosystem Update. In its report, Immunefi said cryptocurrency projects had lost approximately $972 million across 207 hack incidents during the first half of this year, a figure close to Quill Audits' report, which found $935.3 million lost across 87 DeFi hacks in H1 2026.

While Immunefi also identified the highest-ever six-month incident count this year, 2026 DeFi exploit losses so far have fallen 74% from their 2022 peak.

Ethereum and Solana most-affected chains

Tracking losses by chain, Blockaid said on Tuesday Ethereum and Solana projects lost the most during the first half of 2026, losing $332 million and $326 million, respectively.

In the case of Ethereum, "mega code exploits concentrate on Ethereum because the highest-value protocols, including restaking, stablecoins, and DEX aggregators, live here."

Meanwhile, "Solana attackers target signer infrastructure rather than contract code," Blockaid said.

Looking ahead, the report predicts the number of artificial intelligence-related exploits will likely increase in the coming months.

"Bankr's $216,000 exploit was the first ever, and agent deployment is growing roughly ten times per year," according to Blockaid. "Expect multiple AI agent incidents in H2, with prompt injection leading and tool-use abuse and unauthorized signing to follow."