Record Crypto Hacks: $1.1B Stolen in First Half 2026

The first half of 2026 has earned a dubious distinction in crypto history: it's the most hacked six-month period ever by incident count. According to Blockaid's H1 2026 report, released on July 28, there were 212 verified exploits that drained over $1.1 billion from protocols, wallets, and infrastructure across the ecosystem.

The number of attacks hit a record, but the dollar figure actually dropped compared to last year. In H1 2025, roughly $2.3 billion vanished due in large part to the Bybit catastrophe that alone wiped out $1.5 billion. If we remove one mega-hack from this year's equation, the losses would look even worse.

North Korea-linked actors were responsible for approximately 66% of total losses in H1 2026, according to TRM Labs, which independently tracked 207 incidents totaling $972 million stolen in the same period. Two breaches dominated the landscape: the KelpDAO exploit resulted in losses of roughly $292 million, while the Drift Protocol incident cost around $285 million.