Q1 2026 Web3 Projects Lost Over $460 Million Due to Hacks and Scams

Hacken's Q1 2026 report reveals that Web3 projects suffered losses of $464.5 million due to hacks and scams, with phishing and social engineering attacks accounting for $306 million, making them the primary source of losses. A hardware wallet scam in January caused $282 million in damages, representing 81% of the total quarterly losses. Smart contract vulnerabilities and access control failures led to losses of $86.2 million and $71.9 million, respectively. The report highlights that off-chain operations and infrastructure layers are the main points of security incidents, which traditional audits struggle to cover. Europe's regulatory frameworks, MiCA and DORA, are strengthening security monitoring requirements, while global regulators are enhancing real-time monitoring and emergency response standards.