According to CertiK's latest research, financial losses from hacker attacks in the crypto sector fell by nearly 90% in May compared to April, totaling $68.3 million versus over $650 million the previous month. The most significant incident was the Verus Protocol cross-chain bridge exploit, resulting in approximately $11.5 million in stolen funds. Second place went to the THORChain protocol, which lost $10.1 million mid-month.

Analysts identified three primary vulnerability categories: code errors and defects (~$45 million, or two-thirds of total losses), wallet and private key compromises ($13.7 million), and phishing schemes (~$2.6 million). Cross-chain bridges bore the brunt of attacks ($28.6 million, 42% of monthly damage), followed by DeFi protocols. Notably, partial recovery was achieved: CertiK estimates that around $9.4 million in stolen assets were returned during May.

Experts separately highlighted an emerging trend of AI-assisted cyberattacks: malicious actors increasingly target source code repositories and leverage AI programming assistants when compromising crypto and AI projects. Earlier, the Eye security team reported a DxSale protocol exploit on BNB Chain, where attackers drained $7.3 million and affected over 1,400 liquidity pools.