Crypto Platforms Reel from 'Hackers' Day' with $35.55M in Losses

A series of attacks has hit the decentralized finance (DeFi) space on July 23, 2026, resulting in losses of $35.55 million.

The first incident occurred at AFX Trade, a decentralized perpetual exchange operating on the Arbitrum network, which was exploited for approximately $24 million in USDC, according to an alert flagged by blockchain security firm PeckShield.

The root cause of the exploit lies in the cross-chain bridge infrastructure, which remains a frequently targeted attack surface in DeFi.

Arbitrum's native bridge was not compromised, with the issue contained to AFX Trade's third-party bridge, mitigating systemic risk concerns for the broader Layer 2 ecosystem.