Cryptocurrency theft losses fall despite record number of hacks in 2026

Hackers stole nearly $972 million from cryptocurrency platforms in the first half of 2026, across 207 separate attacks. North Korea-linked groups were responsible for $643 million of those losses, mostly from two large attacks in April. The biggest single theft was $116 million taken from Coldcard, a hardware wallet service.

Most attacks targeted smart contracts, but these caused relatively small losses, averaging $6.7 million each. The most damaging attacks hit infrastructure, such as signing keys and wallet systems. These made up only 15% of incidents but caused 76% of total losses.

By mid-2026, total losses for the year had passed $1.2 billion across 276 incidents. Security experts say companies must prepare for both frequent small attacks and rare but very large ones.