Recent analysis reveals that DeFi protocol hackers stole roughly $169 million in crypto during Q1 2026, with 34 decentralized finance protocols and applications falling victim to various attacks. The largest single exploit was against Step Finance, which lost $40 million in a private key breach in January. Other major exploits included $26.4 million stolen from Truebit and attacks on Resolv Labs. While this total is significantly lower than Q1 2025's $1.58 billion in losses (largely due to Bybit's $1.4 billion exploit), the data shows attacks tend to rise during bull markets and periods of high liquidity concentration. Most crypto hacks targeting Web3 platforms are carried out by hackers affiliated with North Korea, including the recent Drift Protocol exploit that resulted in approximately $285 million in losses. The cryptocurrency community faces persistent threats from highly organized criminal groups that systematically scan smart contracts and protocols for security vulnerabilities, making these attacks deliberate rather than random.