Crypto Hack Losses Drop To $26.5M In February

Crypto hacking losses fell to $26.5 million in February, the lowest monthly total since March 2025. The sharp decline suggests exploit activity has moderated after a volatile start to the year.

Blockchain security firm PeckShield recorded 15 distinct incidents during the month. The total marks a 69.2% drop from January’s $86 million and a 98.2% plunge from the $1.5 billion stolen in February 2025, when a $1.4 billion breach at Bybit skewed annual comparisons. Five attacks accounted for roughly $25.9 million, or more than 98% of losses.

Are Fewer Hacks A Structural Shift Or A Pause?

The largest exploit hit YieldBlox, a lending protocol on Stellar, for roughly $10 million. An $8.8 million breach targeted IoTeX’s ioTube bridge, while CrossCurve, FOOMCASH, and Moonwell lost $3 million, $2.3 million, and $1.8 million respectively, according to PeckShield’s alert. The concentration of losses in a handful of protocols mirrors prior months, where single vulnerabilities drove aggregate totals.

Recovery efforts remain active. Stellar Tier-1 validators froze $7.2 million of the $10.2 million stolen from YieldBlox, according to a Feb. 26 post-mortem by Halborn, though the attacker declined a 10% bounty offer. The IoTeX Foundation said it froze 86% of the 410 million unauthorized CIOTX minted during the Feb. 21 ioTube breach and will offer a 100% compensation plan through a claims portal. CrossCurve separately proposed a 10% whitehat bounty following its gateway validation bypass.

Still, the year-to-date trajectory remains uneven. February’s $26.5 million stands in stark contrast to the outsized losses seen a year earlier, underscoring how single centralized exchange failures can distort risk assessments. Whether the recent slowdown reflects stronger security controls or simply fewer high-value targets will become clearer as new protocol upgrades and bridge launches roll out in the second quarter.