According to DefiLlama, April 2026 closed as the month with the highest number of hacks in absolute terms by incident count in the history of the crypto market. Security monitoring platform CertiK confirmed total losses of approximately $651 M, with around $3.5 M of that figure attributed to phishing schemes.
Largest Losses
The five biggest incidents of April were led by Kelp DAO ($291 M) and Drift Protocol ($265 M) — these two protocols accounted for most of the total damage. They were followed by Rhea Finance ($18.4 M), Grinex ($16.2 M), and the 0xDB84a smart contract ($6.5 M).
Top Exploits in April 2026. Source: CertiK
By category, wallet compromises caused the most damage at $610 M. Price manipulation cost the market $18.8 M, while code vulnerabilities accounted for $16.9 M in losses.
Incident Losses by Category in April 2026. Source: CertiK
By protocol type, the DeFi sector was hit hardest, posting $600 M in total losses. Verified contracts lost $8.4 M, while gaming protocols suffered $3.4 M in damages.
Incident Losses by Type in April 2026. Source: CertiK
Historical Context
April 2026 became the worst month for crypto losses since March 2022, when the market lost around $715 M — excluding February 2025, when the Bybit hack occurred. DefiLlama’s chart shows a sharp spike in the red incident-count curve in April 2026, reaching approximately 30 cases in a single month — significantly higher than all previous peaks.
Crypto Hacks by Month — Value Stolen & Incident Count. Source: DefiLlama
Some funds were recovered: CertiK recorded the return of approximately $488,000 from the total amount lost.
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