The cryptocurrency sector experienced a devastating month of security breaches in April, with total funds lost to hacks skyrocketing by an astonishing 1,140% compared to the previous month.
According to data released by blockchain security firm PeckShield, the industry suffered 40 major exploits in April, resulting in a staggering total loss of $647 million.
There has been a simply unprecedented month-over-month surge from March 2026, which saw comparatively lower losses of $52.25 million.
Devastating damage
April's $646.89 million in losses dwarf the combined total of January ($86.01 million), February ($26.52 million), and March ($52.25 million).
KelpDAO ($292 million) and Drift Protocol ($285 million) account for the vast majority of the stolen funds. Rhea Finance ($20 million), Grinex ($13.74 million) are also in the top 5.
The scale of the KelpDAO and Drift exploits is so immense that they have reshuffled the historical rankings of crypto thefts. According to PeckShield's "Top 10 Hacks" chart covering January 2021 to April 2026, the KelpDAO exploit now ranks as the 7th largest crypto hack of all time, while the Drift exploit takes the 9th spot.
The fallout from the $292 million KelpDAO breach extends far beyond the protocol itself. In fact, it has threatened the broader systemic contagion across the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.
As reported by U.Today, the attacker took the stolen rsETH and supplied it as collateral to the Aave lending protocol. The exploiter was able to borrow massive amounts of Ethereum (ETH) and subsequently laundered the liquidity into Bitcoin (BTC).
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team
