August 2026 recorded 50 major crypto hacks—the highest monthly count that year—with total losses of $136.3 million, down 49.5% from July’s $270M and an average loss per hack of about $2.7M versus ~$9M in July. The largest exploit was Tectonic on Cronos (~$74M) but validators froze the chain after the attacker moved roughly $6M to Ethereum and began bridging funds to BTC, and Cronos restored the chain state; PeckShield says attack frequency is rising even as individual hauls shrink, highlighting ongoing DeFi protocol security risk.

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In Brief

Crypto suffered 50 major hacks in August, the most of any 2026 month.
Total losses fell 49.5% to $136.3 million despite the higher attack count.
Tectonic's $74 million exploit drove the damage before Cronos paused its network.

Crypto recorded 50 major hacks in August, the highest monthly count of 2026. Total losses fell to $136.3 million, down 49.5% from July.

Blockchain security firm PeckShield published the tally on Tuesday. The figures show attackers striking far more often while extracting less from each incident.

Cronos Halt Blunted the Month’s Largest Exploit

A single incident dominated the month. Tectonic is the largest lending protocol on Cronos (CRO). It reportedly lost roughly $74 million, the fourth-largest crypto theft of 2026 to date.

The attacker moved only about $6 million to Ethereum (ETH) before validators froze the network.

“The exploiter has since started laundering the stolen funds, bridging them to #BTC (~200K so far),” PeckShield said.

Cronos then restored the chain state to a point before the attack and resumed block production.

#PeckShieldAlert n August 2026, the crypto industry experienced 50 major hacks (+67% from July's 30 hacks), resulting in total losses of $136.3M – a 49.5% month-over-month decrease from July's $270M. The Tectonic.cro incident, which resulted in ~$74M in losses, was the… pic.twitter.com/QtQUy8czdZ
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) September 1, 2026

Attack Volume Rose as Individual Hauls Shrank

August’s 50 incidents topped the 40 recorded in April, May, and June. PeckShield counted 16, 15, and 20 hacks in January, February, and March, respectively.

Monthly Crypto Hack Counts in 2026. Source: PeckShield/BeInCrypto

The average loss per hack fell to about $2.7 million, down from roughly $9 million in July. PeckShield’s top ten incidents accounted for $123.34 million of August’s total, leaving around $12.9 million across the other 40 hacks, per BeInCrypto calculations.

April remains the year’s costliest month at $646.89 million, driven by the Drift and KelpDAO exploits. Those two incidents alone accounted for $577 million.

Moonwell followed Tectonic in August with $8.7 million in losses. Term Labs lost $8.5 million, Coinsbuy $7.9 million, and TAC $7.5 million. Injective, MANTRA, BounceBit, Cosmos Labs, and aquifer rounded out the top ten.

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Read the article at BeInCrypto