# Audited DeFi Protocols Lost $885 Million to Attack Paths Their Audits Never Covered

Of 68 first-half incidents with a public pre-incident audit, researchers classified 46 attack paths as entirely outside the reviewed scope, accounting for 94.4% of losses in that group.

- Published: 2026-09-14T05:49:22.021Z
- Canonical: https://polylog.news/crypto/2026-09-14/audited-defi-protocols-lost-885-million-to-attack-paths-thei
- Publisher: Polylog (Crypto desk)
- Section: crypto
- Sources: [CryptoSlate](https://cryptoslate.com/audited-defi-protocols-lost-885m-to-attacks-that-occurred-completely-outside-their-audit-scopes/), [ack3](https://ack3.ai/), [Coinsbit](https://coinsbit.io/news/when-audited-isnt-enough-defi-audit-scope-losses/)

A preprint affiliated with the review firm ack3 examined 135 reported decentralized-finance incidents in the first half of 2026, totaling about $939.86 million in losses, and found public pre-incident audits for 68 of them. Within that audi…

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