{"id":97597,"date":"2026-06-01T21:03:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T21:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=97597"},"modified":"2026-06-01T21:03:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T21:03:01","slug":"crypto-exploit-losses-reach-68-million-in-may-despite-limited-phishing-damage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=97597","title":{"rendered":"Crypto Exploit Losses Reach $68 Million In May Despite Limited Phishing Damage"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Code vulnerabilities were responsible for the bulk of the damage in May \u2014 roughly 66% of the month\u2019s total losses, or about $45 million.<\/p>\n

That breakdown, drawn from data released by blockchain security firm CertiK, came alongside broader figures showing that overall crypto exploit losses<\/a> fell to $68 million last month, down sharply from $650 million in April.<\/p>\n

Where The Losses Came From<\/h2>\n

Cross-chain bridges took the heaviest hit by category, accounting for 42% of total losses, or $28.6 million. The biggest single incident was an exploit of Verus Protocol\u2019s cross-chain bridge on May 18, which drained $11.5 million. THORChain was next, losing $10 million after an attack in mid-May forced the protocol to halt trading.<\/p>\n

Wallet and private key compromises ranked second in terms of dollar damage, with $13.7 million stolen through that method. DeFiLlama data counted nearly 30 separate incidents in May, seven of which involved compromised private keys.<\/p>\n

The final two reported incidents came on May 30 \u2014 the Alephium Bridge and Gravity Bridge were each hit, losing $815,000 and $5.4 million respectively.<\/p>\n

\n

#CertiKStatsAlert<\/a> \"\ud83d\udea8\"<\/p>\n

Combining all the incidents in May we\u2019ve confirmed ~$68.3M lost to exploits with
\n~$2.6M of the total attributed to phishing.<\/p>\n

After a particularly bad April, May is now the third month of 2026 to record losses under 100M$.<\/p>\n

More details below \"\ud83d\udc47\" pic.twitter.com\/GSWTLKXWDH<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) May 31, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Crypto: A New Threat Takes Shape<\/h2>\n

Phishing<\/a> attacks were comparatively minor, responsible for just $2.6 million of the month\u2019s losses. About $9.4 million was recovered or returned during the period. CertiK<\/a> noted that May marks the third month of 2026 in which total losses stayed below $100 million.<\/p>\n

April\u2019s toll, by contrast, was the worst since March 2022 if the $1.5 billion Bybit hack in February 2025 is set aside. A single exploit of Kelp DAO that month accounted for $291 million of the damage.<\/p>\n


\nAI-Assisted Malware On The Rise<\/p>\n

A separate but growing threat emerged in May as bad actors began using artificial intelligence to develop malware<\/a> aimed at crypto and AI developers.<\/p>\n

Attacks targeted code repositories and attempted to trick AI-powered coding assistants into executing malicious actions \u2014 a tactic that broadens the attack surface beyond traditional smart contract flaws.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

May\u2019s relatively lower losses do not mean the threat has passed. Bridges and code vulnerabilities remain the two most exploited areas in the space, and the introduction of AI-assisted attack tools signals that the methods being used against the industry are still changing.<\/p>\n

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Code vulnerabilities were responsible for the bulk of the damage in May \u2014 roughly 66% of the month\u2019s total losses, or about $45 million. That breakdown, drawn from data released by blockchain security firm CertiK, came alongside broader figures showing that overall crypto exploit losses fell to $68 million last month, down sharply from $650 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-97597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97597\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}