Crypto hack losses reached 1.18 billion dollars in third quarter

Total cryptocurrency losses from hacks rose 55 percent quarter on quarter to reach 1.18 billion dollars in the third quarter of 2026, according to CryptoSlate. A report published by security firm Hacken on October 15 showed that overall stolen funds increased significantly despite a drop in certain access control breaches. [1]

CryptoSlate reported that losses linked to smart contract exploits grew to represent 48 percent of all stolen funds in the third quarter. This marked a sharp rise from approximately 11 percent of total losses recorded in the second quarter summary from the firm. [1]

At the same time, losses attributed to access control and operational failures fell by about 30 percent during the period, according to CryptoSlate. The overall rise in stolen capital occurred alongside an increased total number of security incidents, even as the average loss per incident recorded a slight decline. [1]

Major exploits in September at centralized platforms Bitget and Liquid demonstrated that authorization protocols and asset validation mechanisms both remain critical for platform security, CryptoSlate reported. [1]