Crypto hacks surge 55% to $1.2B, but key theft drops by 30%

Hacken's third-quarter crypto hack total rose to $1.18 billion while the losses implied by its access-control and operational figures fell about 30%.The crypto security firm's Oct. 15 disclosure reports a 55% increase in total theft for July-September compared with the second quarter.The change included 48% more losses from smart contracts in the third quarter, up from about 11% in Hacken's original second-quarter summary. More incidents, alongside a slightly smaller mean recorded loss per incident, also distinguish the two quarters. The figures challenge a fixed security hierarchy that makes custody operations the overriding priority.Bitget's September report showed forged withdrawal instructions without private-key compromise, while Liquid's report from the same month accepted invalid assets before a genuine authorization process released Bitcoin against them.What changed across Hacken's quartersHacken's second-quarter summary recorded $763.9 million extracted across 67 incidents, attributing 88.3% of losses to compromised keys, signers, and infrastructure.Multiplying those figures gives approximately $675 million, while applying the 40% share for the third quarter to $1.18 billi...