Crypto attacks reached a record pace in the first half of 2026, according to new data from Immunefi, which counted 207 successful incidents across the sector. Total losses were about $972 million, the firm said, marking the highest six-month incident count on record even as the total value stolen remained below $1 billion and below the level seen in the first half of 2025.

Attack count rises as losses ease

The figures suggest a shift in the threat landscape: more attacks are being recorded, but the typical financial damage from each incident appears to be falling. Immunefi’s data indicates that the median loss per hack dropped from $6 million in 2022 to $1.5 million in 2025.

The report also points to a longer-term decline in decentralized finance losses from earlier peak levels. DeFi protocol losses fell nearly 80% from $2.62 billion in 2022 to $534 million in 2024, before rising to $680 million in 2025. Against that backdrop, the sub-$1 billion total for the first half of 2026 stands out as a continuation of lower aggregate losses despite the surge in attack frequency.

Why the damage may be smaller

Immunefi attributed the decline in financial impact to a range of security measures and market practices. These include larger bug bounty programs, regular audits, deeper security reviews, more capable researchers, and earlier identification of vulnerabilities by ethical hackers before those flaws can be exploited.

Bug bounty activity remained a notable part of that picture. Immunefi said roughly $13.45 million was paid to researchers through bounty programs in the first half of 2026. Over the platform’s lifetime, total researcher rewards have surpassed $140 million. The company also said it currently protects more than $180 billion in assets and works with over 650 protocols and 92,000 security researchers.

Smart contract exploits still dominate

Most incidents in the first half were linked to smart contract exploits. Immunefi counted 125 such cases out of the 207 total attacks. Even so, those exploits represented a smaller share of the total value stolen than their incident count alone might suggest, indicating that not every smart contract breach resulted in the largest losses.

Separate data cited from TRM Labs showed that the second quarter alone accounted for 123 hacks, a substantial share of the half-year total. TRM Labs said attacks are becoming more complex, with some incidents combining several manipulation techniques within a single exploit.

Targets and broader pattern

According to the report, most stolen funds continued to come from financial services and crypto-native platforms. That points to a persistent concentration of risk in the parts of the industry where large pools of digital assets remain directly accessible through software systems.

Taken together, the H1 2026 figures describe a market in which security incidents are occurring more often, but the average size of those incidents is declining. The record number of hacks shows that pressure on crypto platforms has not eased, while the lower overall losses suggest that defensive practices may be limiting the scale of damage in many cases.

Source: Coin Edition