Dragonfly partner Haseeb: The "DeFi hacker apocalypse" has not materialized, with the annualized amount stolen expected to be around $1.89 billion in 2026.

According to ChainCatcher, Dragonfly partner Haseeb responded on Twitter to OpenZeppelin co-founder Manuel Aráoz's earlier pessimistic view on DeFi security. He believes that, despite GLM 5.2, Fable, and GPT 5.6 models having gone live and been used by attackers, the anticipated DeFi “doomsday for hackers” has not materialized.

Chart data shows that, based on current annual data and run rates, the annualized amount stolen from DeFi in 2026 is about $1.89 billion, with the cumulative amount stolen this year around $986 million, which is lower than 2025 levels and still within the historical range.

Haseeb believes that the deeper shift is that, while the number of hacker attacks has increased, the size of individual attacks has decreased more rapidly. Attackers are increasingly targeting smaller protocols and abandoned projects, while major protocols have implemented more security enhancements, so overall capital security has not significantly deteriorated.