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April 2026 Sets Monthly Record for Crypto Hacks With 24 Incidents

DeFiLlama reported more than 20 crypto exploits and about $630 million in April 2026 losses, reinforcing April as a record month for incident count with Kelp DAO and Drift driving most of the damage.

Fact Check
The core claim that April 2026 set a monthly record for crypto hacks with ~$635M in losses is strongly corroborated by DeFiLlama's hacks database, PANews (citing The Block/DeFiLlama), and The Defiant. The '24 incidents' figure is a conservative mid-period count (analyst Stacy Muur's tally as of Wednesday April 30), while The Defiant and analyst 0x_Abdul put the final count at 28 incidents — making the claim's number accurate as a snapshot but not the final total. The $635M loss figure is confirmed by The Defiant. The 'at least one exploit per day since April 25' detail is directly supported by DeFiLlama's database, which lists incidents on every day from April 25 through April 30. The slight discrepancy in incident count (24 vs. final 28) reflects timing of the report rather than inaccuracy, and does not undermine the record-setting characterization.
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Summary

April 2026 set a monthly record for crypto hacks with 24 security incidents. Earlier reporting citing DeFiLlama put monthly losses at roughly $635 million, while a newer report citing CertiK Alert said confirmed losses reached about $651 million, including about $3.5 million from phishing attacks. The new input adds that DeFiLlama reported more than 20 crypto exploits in April 2026 with total losses of $630 million as of April 30, with Kelp DAO and Drift accounting for most of the damage. Previously cited major exploits included KelpDAO at about $292 million, Drift Protocol at about $280 million, and Hyperbridge at $2.5 million in a cross-chain message forgery attack.

Terms & Concepts
  • Phishing: A social engineering attack that tricks users into revealing private keys, credentials, or approving malicious transactions.
  • Exploit: The unauthorized use of a software or protocol weakness to steal funds or manipulate a system.
  • Cross-chain: Refers to systems or messaging that connect separate blockchains, allowing data or assets to move between networks.