DeFi Security Improves, But Human Vulnerabilities Remain a Concern

The decentralized finance ecosystem has shown significant improvement in its resilience against smart contract attacks over the past two years. According to data from Immunefi and SlowMist, losses from DeFi-specific exploits fell from $2.62 billion in 2022 to approximately $680 million in 2025, a 74% reduction.

The median loss per incident dropped from $6 million to $1.5 million over the same period. However, this improvement is partly attributed to the growing adoption of AI-based tools for code auditing and vulnerability detection, which has scaled static and dynamic analysis of smart contracts.

However, experts warn that while DeFi protocols may be winning the technical battle over code, they are losing ground on the operational and human front. The sector is not yet safe from attacks, as total crypto hacking losses increased by 46% in 2025, reaching $2.935 billion.