The massive hack alone wiped out nearly $600 million, dominating the cryptocurrency’s April loss of $650 million.
April 2026 turned out to be an unusual month for the cryptocurrency market. While overall activity has remained ostensibly steady amid significant geopolitical turmoil, the space has seen a series of exploits that have shaken investor confidence.
Leading blockchain security firm CertiK reported that cryptocurrency-related exploits and incidents in April 2026 resulted in total losses of more than $650 million.
April Hacks
It was the biggest accident He drove By KelpDAO, which lost $292 million, followed by Drift Protocol with $285.2 million. The Drift Protocol exploit followed weeks of preparation and months of social engineering to gain access to the protocol’s signatories. The funds were drained in about 12 minutes. In comparison, the KelpDAO hack stemmed from a single validator flaw in the LayerZero bridge, with attackers later transferring funds via THORChain after stealing over $70 million. Frozen On arbitration
Other exploits Includes Rhea Finance with $18.4 million, and Greenex with $16.2 million, among others. By sector, DeFi projects saw the highest losses at $609.3 million, while unverified contracts lost $8.5 million, GameFi $3.4 million, bridge-related incidents $2.8 million, and meme-related projects $1.9 million.
In terms of categories, wallet hacks accounted for the majority of losses at $611 million, followed by price manipulation at $18.8 million, code vulnerabilities at $16.9 million, phishing at $3.5 million, and front-end attacks at $544.7 million.
Fewer attacks and higher financial impact
North Korean hacking groups accounted for 76% of all cryptocurrency hack losses in 2026 through April, according to TRM Labs. This was not because they carried out more attacks, but because two major incidents alone caused $577 million in losses, which eventually exceeded all other activities. This pattern of fewer attacks but with greater impact has been typical of North Korea’s strategy since 2017.
TRM Found Their share of total cryptocurrency theft has steadily increased over the years, rising from less than 10% in 2020 and 2021 to 22% in 2022, 37% in 2023, 39% in 2024, and 64% in 2025. This jump in 2025 was largely driven by the Bybit hack, where 1.46% were stolen. $1 billion through the hacking of the secure signature interface {Wallet}, making it the largest cryptocurrency hack ever recorded.
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In 2026, the combined losses of KelpDAO and Drift stand out in a similar way. What remains constant is the pace of activity, with only a few carefully planned operations each year. But what changes is how these attacks are carried out.
Total cryptocurrency theft in North Korea has now exceeded $6 billion since 2017, according to TRM findings. Experts believe these groups may be using AI tools to improve reconnaissance and social engineering to achieve more precise and targeted exploits.
