The first half of 2026 smashed records for crypto exploits in the darkest way possible π€ Blockaid’s latest report reveals hackers snagged 1.1 billion across 212 separate hits π
Shadows Claim Over 1.1 Billion from DeFi in Early 2026 πΈοΈ
The findings point to four big breaches at KelpDAO, Drift, Resolv alongside CoW Swap that swallowed roughly 707 million of those totals π
KelpDAO took the hardest hit when attackers faked a cross-chain message and drained 292 million in Ethereum reserves from the protocol π¦ Drift Protocol on Solana got wrecked for 285 million in just 12 minutes flat π©Έ
Both traces back to TraderTraitor, the North Korean state-backed crew tied to Lazarus Group π―οΈ Humanity Protocol’s 32 million loss also links to the same cluster pushing total DPRK thefts to 609 million or 55 percent of everything stolen
Attack frequency spiked hard too jumping from 18 incidents in January straight to 57 by June
Fresh Nightmares Hit DeFi Protocols π
April stung worst as the KelpDAO and Drift exploits together erased 577 million and drove that month’s losses to 635 million
Privileged key misuse caused the biggest damage racking up around 790 million or nearly three quarters of all funds lost with unbacked mints next at 80 million from the Resolve case
The report flags AI agents as juicy new targets after a prompt injection fooled Bankr’s agent into greenlighting an unauthorized 216000 transaction
Cross-chain bridges got hammered when forged proofs broke verification on KelpDAO and Taiko
Four EIP-7702 wallet delegation attacks surfaced as a fresh vector while legacy smart contract bugs kept popping up with five cases in May and June alone including Aztec and Raydium
On July 23 separate strikes on AFX Trade BSquaredNetwork and Verus drained over 35 million in one day
Recovery odds flip depending on the hack type since code flaws sometimes let teams freeze assets or cut deals but key thefts usually vanish through mixers and bridges
The first half of 2026 was the most active six months for crypto exploits on record.
This is according to a new report from Blockaid, which shows hackers stole $1.1 billion across 212 incidents.
β Blockaid (@blockaid_) link
Just another echo from the void by iconofsin.eth π