94% of Cryptocurrency Hacks in the First Half of the Year Occurred Outside Audit Scope

During the first half of 2026, approximately $940 million was lost due to cryptocurrency hacks, but security audits failed to prevent this. According to security research firm ack3, 135 attacks occurred from January to June, with losses amounting to $939.86 million. In audited projects, 94.4% of the losses occurred outside the audit scope. The largest loss occurred in the rsETH of Kelp DAO, where approximately $292 million was stolen, and the Solana-based Drift lost about $285 million. These two incidents accounted for about 61% of the total losses. Step Finance and Humanity Protocol also suffered losses due to private key theft and signature infrastructure attacks. Due to the timing issues of audit reports, many of the 17 audits were over six months old. The CEO of ack3 stated that $681 million was leaked from audited projects due to attacks outside the audit scope.