# Crypto World Loses $940M to Hacks in 6 Months

Even audited protocols proved vulnerable to sophisticated cyber thefts.

- **Source:** [News - Cryptonews](https://brifing.si/source/42333b6f-1c05-4a49-9914-7553e71d2223)
- **Published:** 2026-08-01
- **Topic:** [Finance](https://brifing.si/c/finance)
- **Original article:** <https://cryptonews.com/news/hackers-torch-940m-i/>
- **On Brifing:** https://brifing.si/s/d9e9fbdd-7546-4794-b904-344fc90a060a

## Massive Losses

The crypto world suffered $939.86 million in hacks during the first half of 2026. According to Ack3 research firm, 135 separate attacks occurred, averaging $6.96 million per incident. The most shocking statistic reveals that 94.4% of funds stolen from audited projects were taken through code or infrastructure that auditors never examined.

## Mega Heists

In April, Kelp DAO's rsETH protocol lost $292 million when its single message verifier was compromised. Two weeks earlier, Solana's Drift Protocol lost $285 million after North Korea-linked hackers spent months social engineering their way to admin keys. These two incidents alone accounted for 61% of total losses.

## Human Factor

Step Finance lost $40 million, Humanity Protocol $32 million, and Resolv's USR stablecoin $24.5 million - all through compromised private keys and signing infrastructure rather than smart contract flaws. Cross-chain bridges proved equally vulnerable, with Verus ($11.5M), Syscoin ($8M), and Taiko ($1.7M) all suffering significant breaches.

## Blue Chips Hit

Polymarket suffered a $700k internal wallet hack in May, then a $3.1M front-end supply chain attack in June that turned its website into a wallet drainer. CoW Swap had its domain hijacked. Ironically, feared MEV bot jaredfromsubway.eth, known for exploiting retail traders, itself fell victim to a $7.5M honeypot token scam.

## Unaudited No Safer

Truebit lost $26.4M to a basic integer overflow error in its mint pricing. The data shows unaudited projects fared no better than audited ones, with hackers exploiting both technical vulnerabilities and social engineering tactics across the board.

## Audits Fall Short

In rare cases where exploited code had been audited, reports were mostly outdated - 17 of 20 relevant audits were at least six months old when attacks occurred. Ack3 CEO Josef Gattermayer notes the 'audited' label only matters when projects can answer: 'what exactly was reviewed, how recently, and who controls the keys today?'

## AI Threat Looms

Gattermayer warns that AI tools will escalate cybersecurity threats. First-half 2026 cases showed that while auditors can read every line of code, they can't predict when developers might click a phishing link from 'HR.' This human element remains the weakest security link.

## Industry Wake-Up Call

The crypto world must move beyond one-time audits, adopting regular security reviews, multi-factor authentication, and stricter key management protocols. How quickly the industry implements these lessons will determine whether 2026's second half sees similar losses or meaningful improvement in digital asset security.

## Sources covering this story

- https://cryptonews.com/news/hackers-torch-940m-i/ — 

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_Summary written by Brifing from the original reporting. Copyright in the original article belongs to its publisher; read the full piece at the link above._