CEX and DeFi Hacks Dominate $2.35B Crypto Losses in 2026

Centralized exchanges and DeFi protocols accounted for the vast majority of roughly $2.35 billion in net crypto losses from hacks so far in 2026, according to a compiled report shared with Bitcoin Magazine.

The largest single incident was a $387.5 million drain from Bitget’s hot and warm wallets in September, which several blockchain analytics firms have linked to North Korea. The next-largest loss came from an inflation bug exploit on the Liquid Network Bitcoin sidechain, resulting in the theft of roughly 4,000 bitcoins valued near $320 million at the time.

DeFi platforms followed a similar pattern of concentrated, high-value losses. Drift Protocol lost approximately $285–296 million in an April governance compromise attributed to North Korean actors, while KelpDAO’s rsETH bridge was drained of roughly $292 million.

Incidents involving Bitcoin hardware wallets, such as the Coinkite RNG hack and a Ledger supply-chain attack, were smaller in aggregate, with combined losses estimated between $186 million and $232 million. The report notes the practical deployment of AI coding agents has lowered the barrier for discovering and weaponizing bugs, adding a new layer of risk, particularly for complex smart-contract systems and sidechains.