Crypto losses spiked by 1,163% over April, with the lion\u2019s share of lost crypto coming from a single heist of an elderly US individual\u2019s wallet, says blockchain security firm CertiK.<\/p>\n
CertiK said<\/a> in an April 30 X post that a total of $364 million was lost to exploits, hacks and scams in April, jumping from the $28.8 million recorded by CertiK in March<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The firm added that white hat exploiters had returned around $18.2 million from exploits on the crypto protocols KiloEx, Loopscale and ZKsync, which brought down the month\u2019s total.<\/p>\n The largest hack in April, and the fifth largest to date, involved an elderly US individual<\/a> who lost 3,520 Bitcoin (BTC<\/a>), valued at $330.7 million. The Bitcoin was stolen from their wallet after a hacker used advanced social engineering tactics to gain access on April 30.<\/p>\n Excluding that attack, April\u2019s crypto losses were $34 million, a 21% jump from March.<\/p>\n CertiK said phishing scams, bolstered by the Bitcoin heist, was the main culprits for losses<\/a> while social engineering, access control hacks and price manipulation exploits rounded out the top four types of attacks that stole the most value.<\/p>\n Crypto losses in April spiked to $364 million, a 1,163% increase compared to last month. Source: <\/em>CertiK<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n February still has the most significant number of crypto losses<\/a> for the year so far, with $1.53 billion. Most of that was from the $1.4 billion Bybit hack<\/a> by North Korea\u2019s Lazarus Group, which also holds the crown for the largest crypto hack ever.<\/p>\n Over $18 million was returned for the month. Decentralized exchange KiloEx suspended platform operations after suffering a $7.5 million exploit; however, on April 15, the exploiter returned all the stolen funds,<\/a> only four days after the attack.<\/p>\n The ZKsync Association also recovered $5 million worth of stolen<\/a> tokens from an April 15 security incident involving its airdrop distribution contract.<\/p>\n Related: <\/strong><\/em>Crypto hackers hit DeFi for $92M in April as attacks double from March<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Meanwhile, DeFi protocol Loopscale recovered half of the funds stolen<\/a> during a major exploit on April 26, when manipulating its RateX PT token pricing functions led to the theft of $5.7 million in USDC (USDC<\/a>) and 1,200 Solana (SOL<\/a>).<\/p>\n Losses to crypto scams, exploits and hacks were declining in the final days of 2024, with December registering the smallest amount stolen<\/a> at $28.6 million, compared to $63.8 million in November and $115.8 million in October.<\/p>\nHackers return some funds<\/h2>\n