Crypto hack losses have reached $8.78 billion in 2026, according to DefiLlama. That already tops ARK Invest’s $5.6 billion estimate for on-chain revenue this year, a first since 2020.
One attack drives most of that tally. Even so, decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols lost 58% more in 2026 than in all of 2025. Over the same stretch, ARK’s on-chain revenue estimate fell well below last year’s total.
How One Exchange Breach Rewrote 2026’s Crypto Hack Losses
ARK’s Lorenzo Valente laid out the comparison in a November 12 post. Since 2017, crypto has lost $26.9 billion to hacks and earned $47 billion on-chain.
That works out to 57 cents stolen for every dollar earned, based on Token Terminal and DefiLlama data. ARK’s revenue figure covers the 27 largest projects plus all others.
The October 29 Binance hack, worth $6.36 billion, accounts for about 72% of 2026’s total. The FBI attributed it to North Korea’s TraderTraitor hacking group. Binance says it has covered about 98% of the stolen funds from its own reserves.
Remove Binance, and 2026 losses fall to about $2.42 billion. That sits below 2025’s $2.72 billion, despite 342 logged incidents versus 148.
DeFi Losses Climb While Revenue Thins
The ex-Binance total looks calm, but DeFi protocols moved the other way. They lost $1.19 billion across 243 incidents, up from $757 million in 2025.
Solana (SOL) based trading platform Drift lost $295 million in April. Liquid restaking protocol Kelp DAO lost $293 million that month.
Both attacks were linked to North Korean hackers. They formed part of a string of DeFi drains this spring.
Meanwhile, ARK’s 2026 revenue estimate sits well below 2025’s $8.9 billion. Some protocols direct part of that revenue to token buybacks. Those buybacks helped most tokens paying holders beat Bitcoin (BTC) this year.
Hacks last beat revenue in 2020, when hackers took $4 billion against $1 billion in on-chain revenue. Revenue jumped to $12.5 billion the following year and stayed ahead of hack losses through 2025.
Both sides of ARK’s math could still move. Revenue annualizes the first 3 quarters, while hack totals run only through November 11.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch leaders and journalists provide expert insights
