Crypto Exploits Jump 1,140% in April, $646.89 Million Lost

The crypto landscape has experienced major exploits in April 2026. Hence, throughout the month, 40 notable hacks resulted in a cumulative $646.89M. As per the data from PeckShieldAlert, this denotes a huge 1,140% month-over-month spike. Thus, this sheer increase signifies the rising vulnerabilities across diverse decentralized finance (DeFi) entities and cross-chain platforms.

#PeckShieldAlert In April 2026, the crypto space saw 40 major hacks totaling $647M—a📈 1,140% MoM surge from March ($52.2M).@DriftProtocol & @KelpDAO exploits now rank among the Top 10 hacks since 2021. The KelpDAO exploiter supplied rsETH to @aave to borrow massive amounts… pic.twitter.com/PGgj0WNHoo

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) May 1, 2026

Crypto Exploits Spike 1,140%, KepDAO Dominates Hacks with $292M

As the market statistics suggest, April witnessed a 1,140% increase in crypto exploits and the attackers took away $646.89M. This figure is considerably higher than the $52.2M exploited in March. This drainage across 40 hacks points toward the growing sophistication in the exploiters’ techniques targeting high-value networks. Specifically, Drift Protocol and KepDAO have emerged as the leading among the prominent ten hacks occurring following 2021.

In this respect, the KelpDAO exploiter reportedly supplied $rsETH tokens to Aave and borrowed staggering $ETH amounts ahead of laundering the looted coins into $BTC. The respective incident has exposed the Aave network to a noteworthy risk of bad debt. While responding to this, DeFi United has started coordinating an endeavor marked by the absorption of liquidity shortfall as well as the prevention of additional systemic contagion. Hence, at the top position among the leading 5 hacks, KelpDAO lost $292M.

Drift Protocol, Rhea Finance, and Wasabi Lose $285M, $20M, and $5.5M

Following that, Drift Protocol occupied the 2nd key position on the list. So, the platform lost a cumulative amount of nearly $285M. Then, the 3rd place was taken by Rhea Finance as the platform went through the drainage of almost $20M. As the 4th top exploit, Grinex incurred a total loss of $13.47M. Concluding the list, Wasabi Protocol went through a $5.5M exploit