Crypto Industry Lost $1.18 Billion to Hacks in Q3, 77% From Vendor and Infrastructure Vulnerabilities

BlockBeats news, October 15 — Security firm Hacken reported that in the third quarter of 2026, the crypto industry experienced a total of 107 hacking incidents, with total losses reaching $1.18 billion, the most severe quarter for losses since the first quarter of 2025. Of that, approximately $906 million, or 77% of total losses, was related to compromised third-party vendors or development tools, publicly disclosed fixes that had not yet been deployed, and components not included in security audits.

Losses this quarter were mainly concentrated in four major incidents: the Bitget attack caused approximately $387 million in losses, the Liquid Network attack caused approximately $320 million in losses, the Tectonic incident involved approximately $120 million, and the Coldcard firmware vulnerability caused approximately $115 million in losses. Although third-party infrastructure issues caused the largest losses, smart contracts remained the most common attack vector, with 71 incidents and approximately $228 million in losses.

On loss recovery, approximately $387 million was recovered or reversed through rollbacks, accounting for 33% of total losses; another approximately $410 million was covered by the relevant operators' own funds, including $387 million borne by the Bitget user protection fund. Approximately $384 million, or 32% of total losses, was neither recovered nor compensated. Hacken recommended that the industry strengthen security audits of third-party vendors, development tools, and key components such as oracles, cross-chain bridges, custody systems, and signing permissions.