Crypto has lost more than $15B to hacks since 2016.
2026 is not even over, and it is already on pace to be the worst year on record.
$2.3B+ stolen through late September
At that pace, 2026 finishes near $3B, above the 2022 peak of $2.77B.
But the chart tells a stranger story than "hacks keep rising."
Look at 2023 and 2024. Losses fell to $1.52B and $1.27B.
Then 2025 jumped back to $2.55B, and roughly $1.5B of that came from a single breach at Bybit.
That is the real lesson. Crypto losses are not a steady leak. They are a few giant breaches that decide the whole year.
Your biggest risk is not the average hack. It is being in the wrong place when the big one hits.
Three rules I follow.
Spread. Separate. Revoke.
Spread: never park your whole stack on one exchange. Bybit was one of the largest exchanges in the world, and size did not stop the breach.
Separate: keep long term holdings in a wallet you control, and use a separate hot wallet for trading and new apps.
Revoke: clear old token approvals regularly, because a forgotten permission is an open door.
The market forgets every hack within a month, but the attackers never forget where the money sits.
2026 is not even over, and it is already on pace to be the worst year on record.
$2.3B+ stolen through late September
At that pace, 2026 finishes near $3B, above the 2022 peak of $2.77B.
But the chart tells a stranger story than "hacks keep rising."
Look at 2023 and 2024. Losses fell to $1.52B and $1.27B.
Then 2025 jumped back to $2.55B, and roughly $1.5B of that came from a single breach at Bybit.
That is the real lesson. Crypto losses are not a steady leak. They are a few giant breaches that decide the whole year.
Your biggest risk is not the average hack. It is being in the wrong place when the big one hits.
Three rules I follow.
Spread. Separate. Revoke.
Spread: never park your whole stack on one exchange. Bybit was one of the largest exchanges in the world, and size did not stop the breach.
Separate: keep long term holdings in a wallet you control, and use a separate hot wallet for trading and new apps.
Revoke: clear old token approvals regularly, because a forgotten permission is an open door.
The market forgets every hack within a month, but the attackers never forget where the money sits.
