Crypto Hacks Skyrocket in 2026, But Take Shrinks

Crypto hackers are becoming more prolific in 2026, but their take is shrinking. According to DefiLlama data, there have been 277 hacking incidents by late September, resulting in losses of nearly $1.84B. This number has already surpassed last year's tally of 148 incidents and $2.715B in losses.

The frequency of these attacks has increased significantly, with over 100 incidents logged in the first half of 2026 alone. The third quarter was particularly bad, with Q3 2026 becoming the worst quarter so far this year, seeing over $1.25B lost across 116 separate incidents.

Two major events contributed to these losses: a flaw in Liquid Network's verification process resulted in a loss of $320M on September 6, and a hack on centralized exchange Bitget led to a $387M hit on September 24.

The pattern suggests that the market has become more fragmented, with individual median loss sizes shrinking even as the incident count climbs. Old-fashioned smart contract bugs are still present, but a growing share of recent attacks come from operational mistakes, social engineering, and messy interactions between different protocol components.