According to DefiLlama data, in the first quarter of 2026, hackers stole over $168.6 million in cryptocurrency from 34 DeFi protocols, a significant year-over-year decline. The largest security incident was the $40 million private key compromise at StepFinance in January, followed by a smart contract manipulation attack that resulted in the theft of $26.4 million in ETH, and third was the ResolvLabs stablecoin private key leak on March 21.
DefiLlama: Hackers Stole $168.6M in Crypto from DeFi Protocols in Q1 2026
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Summary
DeFi exploit activity dropped sharply in Q1 2026, with hackers stealing $168.6 million from 34 protocols, according to DefiLlama data cited by AiCoin. The largest DeFi exploit occurred in January at StepFinance, where $40 million was lost due to a private key leak. A smart contract manipulation incident stole $26.4 million in ether, and ResolvLabs suffered a $16.2 million on-chain incident on March 21.
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