Crypto hacks cost $8.74 billion from January through October 2026, according to DefiLlama’s incident dataset, already more than any full year on record there. One incident, the 29 October Binance hack at $6.36 billion, makes up 73% of the total. Without it, 2026 stands at $2.38 billion, just below the $2.51 billion lost in the same ten months of 2025.
The Cryptsy Crypto Hacks Index breaks DefiLlama’s public hacks data down by month, attack type and target, and compares it with earlier years. This edition uses a snapshot taken on 2 November 2026 at 07:49 UTC and covers incidents dated through 31 October 2026. Every figure is a gross loss as recorded in the dataset, before any recovery.
Key Findings on Crypto Hacks in 2026
- $8.74 billion lost across 325 recorded incidents. 20 of those incidents have no loss figure yet.
- Losses are extremely concentrated. Binance alone is 72.8% of the total, and the ten largest incidents are 92.5%.
- The typical hack is small. The median loss is $517,000, and 188 of the 305 incidents with a loss figure stayed under $1 million. Only 7 reached $100 million.
- October was the worst month by far at $6.50 billion. Without Binance, October comes to $136 million.
- More incidents are being recorded. The dataset lists 325 for January to October 2026 against 120 for the same months of 2025, while the median loss fell from $1.1 million to $517,000. Wider coverage by the dataset may explain part of that rise.
- Key compromise is the costliest attack type outside Binance at $721 million, with bridge and cross-chain attacks close behind at $701 million.
How Much Was Lost to Crypto Hacks Each Month in 2026?
Monthly crypto hack losses ranged from $21 million in February to $6.50 billion in October. Before the Binance hack, the worst months were September at $743 million and April at $648 million. Each of those months contains incidents of roughly $300 million or more.
| Month (2026) | Reported losses | Incidents |
|---|---|---|
| January | $104.1M | 17 |
| February | $21.5M | 10 |
| March | $42.7M | 25 |
| April | $648.1M | 34 |
| May | $83.1M | 44 |
| June | $86.9M | 36 |
| July | $254.7M | 39 |
| August | $255.5M | 48 |
| September | $742.8M | 37 |
| October | $6.50B | 35 |
| Total | $8.74B | 325 |
What Are the Biggest Crypto Hacks of 2026?
The biggest crypto hack of 2026 is Binance at $6.36 billion, more than 16 times the next largest, Bitget at $387 million. The top ten span exchanges, DeFi protocols, a Bitcoin sidechain and two hardware wallet brands.
| Date | Target | Reported loss | Attack type | Sector |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-29 | Binance | $6.36B | Frontend and infrastructure | Exchange |
| 2026-09-24 | Bitget | $387.0M | Key compromise | Exchange |
| 2026-09-06 | Liquid Network | $320.0M | Bridge and cross-chain | Blockchain |
| 2026-04-01 | Drift | $295.0M | Access control | DeFi protocol |
| 2026-04-18 | Kelp | $293.0M | Bridge and cross-chain | DeFi protocol |
| 2026-08-30 | Tectonic | $124.5M | Token and share accounting | DeFi protocol |
| 2026-07-31 | Coldcard | $116.0M | Key compromise | Wallet |
| 2026-10-09 | Ledger (supply chain) | $93.0M | Frontend and infrastructure | Wallet |
| 2026-08-24 | Nesa | $50.0M | Token and share accounting | Blockchain |
| 2026-01-31 | Step Finance | $40.0M | Key compromise | DeFi protocol |
DefiLlama’s entry for Binance describes unauthorized withdrawals across several blockchains after a suspected compromise of a DevOps engineer’s laptop, with no evidence that wallet private keys leaked. It says about $3 billion was later frozen and that Binance committed to covering all losses from its SAFU fund and company reserves. Early reports were lower: our 30 October coverage of the Binance hack carried estimates of $5.3 billion to $5.9 billion.
Two wallet incidents stand out because they hit people who had moved coins off exchanges. DefiLlama attributes the Coldcard losses to a firmware bug that weakened seed generation, and the Ledger losses to genuine devices that were modified and resold with hidden hardware that captured recovery phrases. The Ledger entry says Ledger confirmed its Secure Element, operating system and internal infrastructure were not compromised.
How Do Crypto Hackers Get In?
Crypto hackers took the most money in 2026 through infrastructure attacks and stolen keys. Leaving out Binance, key compromise cost $721 million across 36 incidents. Oracle manipulation was far more frequent than its money share suggests, with 42 incidents and $75 million lost.
| Attack type (DefiLlama category) | Reported losses | Without Binance | Incidents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frontend and infrastructure | $6.50B | $144.3M | 16 |
| Key compromise | $721.3M | $721.3M | 36 |
| Bridge and cross-chain | $700.9M | $700.9M | 34 |
| Access control | $370.8M | $370.8M | 54 |
| Token and share accounting | $250.5M | $250.5M | 58 |
| Oracle Manipulation | $74.6M | $74.6M | 42 |
| Protocol Logic | $25.7M | $25.7M | 43 |
Ethereum was involved in the most 2026 incidents, with 115, followed by BSC with 62, Base with 36, Arbitrum with 32 and Solana with 19. An incident can touch more than one chain, so these counts overlap. Social engineering shows only 5 direct entries in the category data, but the Drift and Kelp descriptions also involve tricking people, which shows how much of crypto theft starts with a person rather than a smart contract.
Exchanges, DeFi or Wallets: Who Lost the Most?
Exchanges lost the most money in 2026, and DeFi protocols were hit the most often. Four exchange incidents total $6.78 billion, while 232 DeFi incidents total $1.19 billion. Without Binance, exchanges drop to $417 million and DeFi becomes the largest group.
| Target type | Reported losses | Incidents | Average per incident |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exchange | $6.78B | 4 | $1.69B |
| DeFi protocol | $1.19B | 232 | $5.1M |
| Blockchain | $435.2M | 25 | $17.4M |
| Wallet | $237.5M | 12 | $19.8M |
Are Crypto Hacks Getting Worse? Losses by Year
Measured in dollars, 2026 is the worst year in the dataset, and it still has two months to run. But that result rests on one event. Without Binance, the $2.38 billion recorded so far sits below the full-year totals for 2020 ($3.98 billion), 2021 ($2.87 billion), 2022 ($3.63 billion) and 2025 ($2.72 billion).
| Year | Reported losses | Incidents |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | $1.12B | 31 |
| 2019 | $277.3M | 26 |
| 2020 | $3.98B | 46 |
| 2021 | $2.87B | 127 |
| 2022 | $3.63B | 185 |
| 2023 | $1.63B | 197 |
| 2024 | $1.67B | 217 |
| 2025 | $2.72B | 148 |
| 2026 (to October) | $8.74B | 325 |
What Are the Biggest Crypto Hacks in History?
The largest crypto hack in history, by DefiLlama’s dollar figures, is the 2026 Binance hack, about 1.8 times LuBian ($3.50 billion, 2020) and about 4.5 times Bybit ($1.40 billion, 2025). These amounts use values recorded for each incident, so older hacks are not restated at today’s coin prices.
| Date | Target | Reported loss | What happened (per DefiLlama) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-29 | Binance | $6.36B | Unauthorized withdrawals after a suspected infrastructure breach |
| 2020-12-28 | LuBian | $3.50B | Weak key generation let an attacker brute-force private keys at this Bitcoin mining pool |
| 2025-02-21 | Bybit | $1.40B | Phishing of a DevOps engineer and a spoofed signing screen, attributed to Lazarus Group |
| 2022-03-23 | Ronin Network | $624M | Attackers took over 5 of 9 validators on the Axie Infinity bridge |
| 2021-08-10 | Poly Network | $611M | Vulnerability in cross-chain bridge contracts; the attacker returned nearly all funds |
| 2022-10-06 | Binance Bridge | $570M | Forged proofs minted 2 million BNB on the BSC Token Hub bridge |
| 2018-01-26 | Coincheck | $534M | Hackers stole 523 million NEM coins from a hot wallet |
| 2014-02-07 | Mt. Gox | $470M | Attackers drained the exchange hot wallet over several years; 850,000 BTC went missing |
| 2022-11-12 | FTX | $450M | SIM-swapping gang intercepted codes and drained wallets |
| 2026-09-24 | Bitget | $387M | Unauthorized transfers from hot wallets |
Other well-known entries sit just below this list: Wormhole Portal at $326 million (2022), DMM Bitcoin at $305 million (2024) and KuCoin at $281 million (2020). Exchanges and cross-chain bridges fill almost every place in the top ten, and hot wallets come up repeatedly.
What the Hack Data Means for Your Crypto
- Exchange balances carry a large, rare risk. Only four exchange incidents appear in ten months, but they include the two largest losses of the year. Holding only what you are actively trading limits your exposure while a platform freezes withdrawals.
- Self-custody moves the risk, it does not remove it. Both wallet incidents above reached users directly. Our crypto wallet security rules and cold wallet comparison cover setup, and given the Ledger case it makes sense to buy devices directly from the manufacturer.
- Bridges deserve extra care. DefiLlama flags 51 incidents in 2026 as bridge hacks, worth $753 million. Compare options in our crypto bridge guide before moving large amounts, and check what you pay with the Crypto Transfer Cost Index.
- DeFi positions face many small risks. With 232 incidents this year, protocol choice matters. Our DeFi platforms guide compares the larger options.
How the Crypto Hacks Index Is Built
All figures are calculated from the DefiLlama hacks dashboard and its public hacks API, which held 1,334 records at snapshot time. We add up the recorded amount per incident and group by DefiLlama’s date, category and target type. We did not independently audit each entry.
- Gross, not net. The dataset’s returned-funds field totals only about $6 million for 2026 and does not reflect the roughly $3 billion its own Binance entry describes as frozen.
- Figures can change. DefiLlama adds and revises entries, so loss estimates and incident counts can move between editions.
- Incidents with no amount count toward incident totals but add nothing to loss totals or the median.
Using these numbers? Please cite the Cryptsy Crypto Hacks Index with a link to this page, and credit DefiLlama as the underlying data source.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much crypto was stolen in hacks in 2026?
DefiLlama’s dataset records $8.74 billion in crypto hack losses from January through October 2026, across 325 incidents. That is a gross figure. It does not deduct funds that were later frozen or returned.
What is the biggest crypto hack ever?
In DefiLlama’s dataset, the largest single incident is the 29 October 2026 Binance hack at $6.36 billion. The next largest entries are LuBian in 2020 at $3.50 billion and Bybit in 2025 at $1.40 billion.
What is the most common type of crypto hack?
By incident count in 2026, the most common category is token and share accounting with 58 incidents, followed by access control with 54. By money lost, leaving out Binance, key compromise leads at $721 million.
Are centralized exchanges safer than DeFi from hacks?
The 2026 data shows two different risks. Four exchange incidents account for $6.78 billion, while 232 DeFi incidents account for $1.19 billion. DeFi protocols get hit far more often, and exchange incidents are far larger when they happen.
How often is the Crypto Hacks Index updated?
We recalculate the index each month from DefiLlama’s public data and update the snapshot date on this page. DefiLlama can revise past entries, so older figures may change between editions.
Sources: DefiLlama hacks dataset (defillama.com/hacks), snapshot 2 November 2026; calculations by Cryptsy.
