Crypto losses drop 90% to $68.3M in May, bridge attacks lead

Losses from cryptocurrency platform exploits and scams fell sharply to $68.3 million in May, a nearly 90% decrease from the approximately $650 million lost in April, according to a monthly report from blockchain security firm CertiK. The figure marks the third month in 2026 where total monthly losses have remained under $100 million.

The May total resulted from 60 confirmed incidents, the highest monthly count of the year so far. Phishing attacks accounted for $2.6 million of the losses. Approximately $9.4 million of stolen funds were recovered or returned during the month, partially offsetting the gross losses.

The most significant single incident was an exploit of Verus Protocol's cross-chain bridge on May 18, resulting in $11.5 million in losses. A mid-May attack on THORChain followed as the second-largest, with $10.1 million stolen. Cross-chain bridges were the most targeted infrastructure category overall, accounting for $28.6 million, or 42% of the month's total losses.

Code vulnerabilities were the leading cause of losses by value, responsible for approximately $45 million, or about 66% of the total. Wallet and private key compromises ranked second, with $13.7 million...