$950 Million Evaporated in the First Half Alone... What Are the Cryptocurrency Hacking Methods That Shook the World?

▲ Hacking. Cryptocurrency transaction/ChatGPT generated image ©

Behind the cryptocurrency market, which is full of expectations for institutional capital inflow and regulatory clarity, a dark shadow of massive fund outflows due to hacking is looming. A series of sophisticated cyberattacks targeting large decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols during the first half of 2026 have once again raised fundamental questions about the overall security design and stability of the Web3 industry.

According to Finbold, a cryptocurrency media outlet, on July 8 (local time), a total of $955,864,608 in massive funds were stolen through hacking from five decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols in just half a year, from January 1 to June 2026. This investigation result clearly shows that the cryptocurrency ecosystem, on the verge of entering the mainstream, is still exposed to vulnerable security threats.

The largest hacking incident occurred on April 18 at Kelp DAO, an Ethereum (ETH) blockchain-based liquidity restaking protocol. Hackers used supply chain compromise methods to steal 116,500 rsETH, worth approximately $293 million at the time, in one fell swoop, causing many investors to suffer direct asset losses.

The second largest incident occurred on April Fool's Day, April 1, at Drift Protocol, a Solana (SOL) blockchain-based decentralized exchange platform. Attackers successfully stole approximately $285 million using social engineering techniques thoroughly targeting individual investors, causing a significant shock to the market. In addition, personal key leaks occurred at Step Finance and Humanity Protocol, and Truebit became a target of major hacks in the first half due to smart contract vulnerabilities.

These large-scale hacking incidents have a greater impact as they occurred at a sensitive time when regulatory adjustments, such as the introduction of the U.S. Cryptocurrency Market Structure Bill, the CLARITY Act, and Europe's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, and the entry of institutional investors are becoming full-fledged. In response, the Ethereum blockchain community is closely reviewing network upgrades to significantly enhance security and plans to drastically reduce chronic source code vulnerabilities within the Web3 environment through the full-scale introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) coding agents in the future.

*Disclaimer: This article is for investment reference only, and we are not responsible for investment losses based on it. This content should be interpreted for informational purposes only.*