April 2026 Becomes Worst Month for Crypto Hacks Since February 2025

Crypto protocols lost over $606 million to hacks in just 18 days of April 2026. That makes it the single worst month for exploits since February 2025. The surge comes from two attacks on KelpDAO and Drift Protocol. Together, they account for 95% of Aprils losses and 75% of 2026s total of $771.8 million. April 2026 Crypto Hack Losses Dwarf Q1 Combined According to data from DefiLlama, Aprils $606.2 million totalacross12 incidents, it has already eclipsed the first quarters $165.5 million haul. That makes the month roughly 3.7 times as large as January, February, and March combined. MonthNumber of HacksAmount LostJanuary12$100.1MFebruary8$24.2MMarch15$41.3MApril (to April 18)12$606.2MYTD Total47$771.8M Every month since February 2025 has held under $240 million, per DefiLlamas tracker. That earlier figure was skewed by the $1.4 billion Bybit breach, which drove February 2025s total to $1.466 billion. April 2026s losses arrived without any headline exchange hack of that size. The pattern shows how quickly attackers pivoted to Decentralized Finance (DeFi) infrastructure. BeInCrypto reported that KelpDAO lost over $290 million on April 18, now the years largest single hack. Drift Protocol sits just behind at $285 million. The damage has stacked up in recent days. Incidents at Vercel, Hyperbridge, Grinex Exchange, and Rhea Finance have piled in 2026. None of these accounts for the collateral damage seen across TVL, user trust, valuations, and the spaces morale. DeFi remains a niche market until risk can be properly priced; at this time, were far from it, an anlyst wrote. DeFi TVL Slides as Sentiment Cracks DeFi total value locked (TVL) fell by more than 7% over the past 24 hours following the Kelp exploit. Aave alone dropped from $26.4 billion to near $17.9 billion. Every protocol is taking a hit now, analyst Ted Pillows wrote. Not a great 24 hours for crypto's image.The biggest DeFi hack of 2026 hit yesterday with Kelp DAO exploited for $292m.Then RAVE token crashed 95% in one day after a vertical pump to $28, wiping $6.3bn in market cap. That's on the back of investigations into alleged insider Nic (@nicrypto) April 19, 2026 Hack frequency is also climbing sharply. DeFi recorded 47 incidents in the first 4.5 months of 2026, compared with 28 over the same period in 2025. That works out to a roughly 68% year-over-year rise. The reactions point to rising concern that DeFis risk pricing has not caught up with infrastructure-layer exploits. Dollar losses sit below 2025s Bybit-skewed pace, yet incidents keep stacking. The next few weeks will show whether DeFi can tighten security before Aprils trend defines the year.