Crypto hackers steal $169M from 34 DeFi protocols in Q1: DefiLlama

Written by Stephen Katte, Staff WriterReviewed by Felix Ng, Staff EditorCrypto hackers steal $169M from 34 DeFi protocols in Q1: DefiLlama9 hours agoJanuary saw the largest attack against a DeFi protocol of the quarter, the $40 million private key compromise of portfolio management platform Step Finance.       Listen0: 00 Cointelegraph in your social feed           Crypto hackers stole over $168.6 million in cryptocurrency from 34 decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols in the first quarter of 2026, falling significantly from the same period last year, according to data from DefiLlama. The $40 million private key compromise of Step Finance in January was the largest exploit of the quarter, the data shows, followed by a smart contract manipulation that drained $26.4 million in ether (ETH) from Truebit on Jan. 8. The third-largest was a private key compromise targeting stablecoin issuer Resolv Labs on March 21. The quarterly figure is low given that the industry saw $1.58 billion stolen in the first quarter of 2025, with the bulk coming from the $1.4 billion Bybit exploit.