Fears that synthetic intelligence would set off a wave of catastrophic decentralized finance (DeFi) hacks in what was coined as a “hackpocalypse” haven’t materialized, in accordance with Dragonfly managing associate Haseeb Qureshi.
Whereas the incident rely grew to a document excessive, the median measurement of hacks has dipped under $500,000 this 12 months, down from over $2 million in 2025. Qureshi argued that this exhibits malicious actors utilizing AI are focusing on “small protocols and abandonware” whereas bigger DeFi protocols have fortified themselves towards AI’s menace.
Excluding outlier months with giant incidents, such because the Bybit hack in February 2025 together with the Drift Protocol and KelpDAO exploits in April of this 12 months, 2026 has nonetheless seen much less worth hacked per thirty days than the earlier 12 months, stated Qureshi.
The feedback are available in response to considerations shared by blockchain safety platform OpenZeppelin’s founder, Manuel Aráoz, who stated that he considers “all of DeFi unsafe,” citing the rising potential of AI coding brokers to determine good contract vulnerabilities.
Broader trade datasets, which embody centralized platforms, pockets compromises and phishing, in addition to DeFi exploits, supply a much less reassuring image. In April, crypto hacks surged, leading to losses of round $644 million, marking an over one-year excessive final seen in February 2025 when the $1.4 billion Bybit hack pushed month-to-month losses to $1.46 billion, in accordance with DefiLlama.
Supply: Haseeb
Crypto hacks fall 47% in H1, however crypto trade not essentially safer: CertiK
Losses to cryptocurrency hacks fell 46.8% year-on-year to $1.32 billion within the first half of 2026, however blockchain safety firm CertiK argued that the Web3 trade’s decrease headline losses don’t essentially imply the trade is safer.
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Whereas it marks a big drop in greenback worth, final 12 months’s figures had been skewed by the $1.4 billion Bybit hack, the biggest in crypto historical past, CertiK informed Cointelegraph.
In the course of the second quarter of 2026, over 70% of the losses stemmed from the KelpDAO and Drift Protocol exploits, which had been largely attributed to North Korean state-sponsored hackers.
Month-to-month change in crypto exploit quantities and variety of incidents throughout H1. Supply: CertiK
The information underscores the continued menace that North Korean hackers pose to the crypto trade, having stolen greater than $6 billion value of crypto since 2017, TRM Labs estimated in April.
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