Crypto hackers made off with around 168 million bucks from Decentralised Finance (DeFi) protocols in the first quarter of 2026, a significant drop from the 1.58 billion dollars that were swiped a year earlier. This fall in the dollar amount stolen is a sharp contrast to the previous year and it hints at a quieter start to the year for the large scale crypto hacks – although security experts are warning that the underlying risks are still there, especially as more money starts flowing back into crypto markets. Data from DefiLlama shows that the losses were spread out across 34 different DeFi protocols – so rather than seeing a single massive breach, we're seeing a much more fragmented threat landscape. And while it's true that the year on year decline was a whopping 89% – that's largely because one single massive hack on Bybit in early 2025 netted the hackers 1.4 billion dollars.
Experts expect 2026 to see even more advanced techniques being used, like credential theft, social engineering and AI assisted exploits – and these methods are getting more and more targeted at human behaviour, not just the tech itself. Even though there's been a drop in quarterly losses, the DeFi sector is still structurally exposed – so for investors and developers the key message is this: security needs to be a continuous process as all the other factors in the market keep moving upwards.
