Cryptocurrency security incidents rose nearly 50% in the first half of 2026, even as overall losses fell about 60%, according to a mid-year report from blockchain security firm SlowMist.
The company recorded 182 incidents worth about $956 million between January and June. A year ago, 121 incidents caused losses worth $2.373 billion.
Cryptocurrency attacks rose by 50% in 2026 while the amounts stolen decreased
The data indicate a dichotomy between frequency and severity. More attacks occurred, but the largest sums were concentrated on a few high-value targets.
Contract and logic gaps accounted for the largest number of incidents, reaching 85 cases. Private key and credential reconciliation It ranked second with 17 attacks, followed by supply chain attacks with 12 attacks.
In terms of value, the picture changes. Supply chain attacks caused the largest losses, totaling approximately $298 million. One event dominated the total.
Exploitation of seaweed DAO It caused almost one loss $292 million, the largest in the half. Researchers linked the attack To a subset of North Korean Lazarus Group.
Contract and logic defects accounted for approximately $152 million. The private key and credential compromises added about $130 million in losses.
Notably, Ethereum (ETH) was the most targeted ecosystem, with related losses amounting to approximately $134 million.
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How AI is changing attacks
SlowMist also highlighted artificial intelligence as a feature of the growing threat. The company says that artificial intelligence has lowered the barrier to social engineering and automated attacks. Attackers are now using AI across the entire attack chain.
In one example, the SlowMist CISO warned in April that HexagonalRodent, a subset of Lazarus, lured developers with fake, high-paying job offers and interviews to seed backdoor code.
“Relevant investigations found that the attackers extensively used artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT and Cursor during the attack process to help generate code, craft communication content, and enhance social engineering narratives,” the report said.
The AI agents themselves They also appeared as targets. In the May 2026 case, the attacker first NFT dropped that He opened highly privileged transfers, then sent the Grok chatbot a Morse code message that was decoded into hidden transfer instructions.
The associated trading agent BankrBot treated this output as trusted and transferred approximately $175,000 on-chain. SlowMist calls this an “AI Agent Chain of Trust” attack.
The mixed picture leaves defenders with two problems at once. The volume of attacks continues to rise, and AI is reshaping how these attacks are built and operated.
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