Crypto▼ Bearish
Crypto Hacks Drain $1.1B in First Half of 2026 Amid 212 Security Incidents
Blockaid reports $1.1 billion stolen across 212 crypto incidents in H1 2026, with North Korea-linked groups responsible for 55% of losses. KelpDAO and Drift Protocol led the breaches.
Continue with
The first half of 2026 was the most active six-month period for crypto exploits on record, with hackers stealing $1.1 billion across 212 incidents, according to blockchain security firm Blockaid.
Four major breaches accounted for roughly $707 million of the total. KelpDAO lost $292 million after attackers faked a cross-chain message to drain its Ethereum reserves. Drift Protocol, a Solana-based perpetuals exchange, was hit for $285 million within 12 minutes. Blockaid linked both cases to TraderTraitor, a state-sponsored North Korean subset of the Lazarus Group. Humanity Protocol’s $32 million loss was connected to the same cluster, bringing North Korea-linked losses to $609 million, or about 55% of all funds stolen in the period.
The pace of attacks accelerated through the year. Monthly incidents rose from 18 in January to 57 in June. April was the most costly month, with the KelpDAO and Drift Protocol hacks combining for $577 million, pushing total April losses to $635 million.
Privileged key misuse was the most expensive attack type, accounting for about $790 million, or roughly three-quarters of all stolen funds, Blockaid said. Unbacked mint exploits came second, led by the $80 million Resolv breach. Code-level hacks caused the most incidents, representing nearly four out of every five attacks.