Crypto loses 24 bps of market cap annually to hacks versus 1.7 bps for US banking deposits, a 14x security gap.
Security & Exploits ·
Cryptocurrency networks have shed an average of 24 basis points of market capitalization annually to hacks since 2018, compared to 1.7 basis points of deposits lost to fraud in the US banking system—a 14-fold disparity according to analysis. The security gap reflects a structural vulnerability in how crypto assets are stored and transacted relative to traditional financial infrastructure.
The recurring theft functions as an embedded cost that participants absorb, much like operational loss in conventional commerce. As hacks accumulate, they erode the competitive positioning of crypto networks by raising the effective cost of use and custody. Data underpinning these calculations derives from DefiLlama.
What remains unclear is whether the gap narrows as security practices mature, whether particular asset classes or network types experience materially different loss rates, or how methodologies for measuring deposit fraud and market cap losses might diverge in ways that affect the comparison.