- April crypto losses surged 1,163% to $364 million, primarily due to a single $330.7 million Bitcoin theft from an elderly US individual.
- Excluding the major Bitcoin heist, April losses were $34 million, still representing a 21% increase from March.
- White hat Hackers returned $18.2 million in stolen funds from exploits on KiloEx, Loopscale, and ZKsync platforms.
Cryptocurrency losses skyrocketed by 1,163% in April 2024, reaching $364 million compared to March’s $28.8 million, according to blockchain security firm CertiK. The dramatic increase was primarily driven by a single massive theft of 3,520 Bitcoin (valued at $330.7 million) from an elderly US individual’s wallet, as reported by CertiK in an April 30 X post.
The elderly victim’s Bitcoin was stolen after hackers employed sophisticated social engineering tactics to gain wallet access on April 30, marking this as the fifth largest cryptocurrency hack to date. Even discounting this major heist, April’s crypto losses still totaled $34 million, representing a 21% increase from March’s figures.
Phishing Attacks Lead Crypto Theft Categories
According to CertiK’s analysis, phishing scams were the primary culprits for losses in April, significantly amplified by the massive Bitcoin heist. Other major attack vectors included social engineering, access control hacks, and price manipulation exploits, which collectively represented the most financially damaging attack methods for the month.
While April’s losses were substantial, February 2024 maintains the highest crypto theft total for the year at $1.53 billion. The majority of February’s losses stemmed from the $1.4 billion Bybit hack attributed to North Korea‘s Lazarus Group, which remains the largest cryptocurrency hack in history.
Recovery Efforts Show Limited Success
Despite the grim numbers, CertiK reported that white hat exploiters returned approximately $18.2 million from various platform attacks in April. Decentralized exchange KiloEx, which suffered a $7.5 million exploit, recovered all stolen funds just four days after the attack when the exploiter returned the assets.
Similarly, the ZKsync Association recovered $5 million worth of tokens stolen from its airdrop distribution contract on April 15. DeFi protocol Loopscale managed to recover roughly half of the $5.7 million in USDC and 1,200 Solana tokens stolen during an April 26 exploit that manipulated its RateX PT token pricing functions.
The significant April increase breaks what had been a declining trend in crypto thefts at the end of 2023, when December registered just $28.6 million in losses compared to November’s $63.8 million and October’s $115.8 million.
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