Cryptocurrency hacking losses exceeded $1 billion in the first half of 2026, and the number of hacking cases was the highest on a half-year basis, a survey showed.

Cointelegraph recently reported, citing on-chain security firm Blockaid, which tracked 212 security incidents in the first half, that losses by network were concentrated on Ethereum and Solana. Ethereum hacking losses in the first half were estimated at about $332 million, and Solana at about $326 million. Solana became the network with the second-largest losses, overtaking Arbitrum.

The largest single loss case in the first half was a $292 million incident involving KelpDAO.

On Ethereum, code exploits accounted for the largest share by number of incidents. Attackers mainly targeted vulnerabilities in applications built on Ethereum. Bridges and smart contract bugs, unauthorized access to privileged accounts and market manipulation were also cited as major attack methods. Key breaches at Humanity Protocol and Starbl R were also included among major loss cases. The only major Ethereum incident classified as user error was an Ethereum-based decentralised exchange CoW Swap.

Solana losses rose sharply from about $127 million recorded in 2025. The increase was not due to an expansion in smart contract exploits. More than 98 percent of Solana losses stemmed from key breaches, with incidents involving Drift Protocol and Step Finance accounting for a large share.