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April 2026 Worst Month for Crypto Hacks

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Trader offers 10% bounty after claiming violent $24M crypto robbery

Crypto protocols have lost more than $606 million to hacks and exploits in just the first 18 days of April 2026, making it the single worst month for theft in the industry since the $1.4 billion Bybit breach in February 2025, according to data from DefiLlama.

Summary

  • Over $606 million was stolen from crypto protocols across 12 incidents in the first 18 days of April 2026, according to DefiLlama data.
  • Two attacks, the $285 million Drift Protocol exploit and the $292 million KelpDAO breach, account for approximately 95% of April’s losses.
  • April’s total is already 3.7 times larger than the entire first quarter’s combined losses of $165.5 million, with the month not yet over.

Crypto protocols have lost more than $606 million to hackers across 12 separate incidents in just 18 days of April 2026, according to data tracked by DefiLlama. Yahoo Finance reported the figure from BeInCrypto’s analysis, confirming that April has already become the worst month for crypto theft since February 2025, when the Bybit breach alone accounted for $1.4 billion.

April 2026 Crypto Hacks Dwarf the Entire First Quarter

The scale of April’s damage is stark in context. The entire first quarter of 2026 saw $165.5 million in losses across a relatively quiet stretch. April’s $606 million total arrived in under three weeks, making the month 3.7 times larger than Q1 combined and pushing 2026’s year-to-date theft total to approximately $771.8 million across 47 separate incidents. Two exploits account for nearly all of it. The $285 million Drift Protocol attack on April 1, later attributed to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, and the $292 million KelpDAO breach on April 18, also linked to Lazarus, together represent roughly 95% of the month’s losses and approximately 75% of everything stolen in crypto in 2026 so far. As crypto.news reported, the KelpDAO exploit alone triggered over $10 billion in Aave outflows and sent shockwaves across more than 20 connected protocols.

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The Attack Frequency Problem Is Getting Worse

Beyond the dollar totals, the pace of attacks is accelerating in a way that concerns security researchers as much as the individual incident sizes. DeFi recorded 47 separate incidents in the first four and a half months of 2026, compared with 28 over the same period in 2025, a 68% year-over-year increase in attack frequency. The shift in attack methods is equally significant. As crypto.news documented, April’s exploits cut across smart contract vulnerabilities, infrastructure attacks, and social engineering campaigns, including AI-driven attacks on wallets like Zerion. The diversification of attack vectors means that technical audits and code reviews alone are no longer sufficient protection for protocols with significant TVL. “None of these accounts for the collateral damage seen across TVL, user trust, valuations, and the space’s morale. DeFi remains a niche market until risk can be properly priced,” an analyst wrote in BeInCrypto’s coverage.

What the April Hack Surge Means for Crypto Markets

Markets have already begun pricing in what analysts are calling a “security risk premium” on DeFi assets. As crypto.news tracked, crypto’s cumulative hack losses have now crossed $17 billion over the past decade, with attackers increasingly pivoting away from smart contract bugs toward private keys, signing infrastructure, and human-layer social engineering. Institutional players are responding with emergency rate limits and frozen bridge flows, while Jefferies has warned the string of marquee hacks could temporarily slow Wall Street’s appetite for DeFi tokenization projects. If even one more mid-size exploit occurs before April 30, the month’s total could approach $700 million, according to DefiLlama data cited by BeInCrypto.

DefiLlama’s hacks tracker shows the attack frequency running at approximately one incident every 2.9 days in 2026, a pace researchers say reflects a growing attack surface driven by DeFi TVL exceeding $120 billion and the proliferation of cross-chain bridge infrastructure.

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A 43% Projection Is Calling the Gold vs Silver Winner as Oil Cools

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Gold-Silver Ratio Daily Chart

The gold vs silver divergence has widened sharply this month. Silver (XAG/USD) is up 15.47% against gold’s (XAU/USD) 6% gain as Brent crude slides below $99 on continuing de-escalation talks.

The gap is not random. Proprietary indicators, options flows, and chart structure all lean the same way, though one structural force still defends gold’s downside.

Three Forces Are Separating Gold from Silver

The gold-silver ratio has formed an inverted cup and handle since late March. The ratio now presses against the handle’s lower trendline. A clean breakdown would extend silver’s lead, while a reclaim of the pattern’s upper bound would neutralize the silver-friendly setup.

Its handle low sits near 58, and a break below that level targets a further 16% compression, meaning silver extends the lead. A reclaim of 68 flips it back toward gold.

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Gold-Silver Ratio Daily Chart
Gold-Silver Ratio Daily Chart: TradingView

Silver’s Solar Lag Model, which tracks silver against solar-demand-driven industrial flows with a 10-day lag, has crossed above zero for the first time since late 2025. The November 28 cross preceded silver’s multi-week rally.

Silver vs Solar Lag Model
Silver vs Solar Lag Model: TradingView

Gold’s Real Yields Lag Model, BeInCrypto’s proprietary indicator, which measures gold’s path against 10-year real yields, is rolling the other way. It peaked at 2.685 earlier this month and now reads 0.308. Its slope mirrors the February rollover that broke below zero and bottomed at -3.497 during gold’s correction.

Real Yields Lag Model
Real Yields Lag Model:TradingView

One structural force still defends gold. Central banks now hold roughly 38,666 tons, about 17% of all gold ever mined, according to data cited by The Kobeissi Letter. Even if gold loses the relative race to silver, its downside is cushioned by a buyer base that does not respond to short-term macro rotations.

Taken together, the ratio is compressing in silver’s favor, silver’s industrial lag model is climbing, and gold’s monetary premium is fading, while central bank demand keeps gold’s floor intact rather than lifting it higher. The scoreboard reads three forces for silver, one defensive line for gold.

Positioning data shows whether options traders are reading the divergence the same way.

Options Traders Stack Long on One, Stay Balanced on the Other

Options activity on the iShares Silver Trust (SLV ETF), the largest silver-backed fund and the main proxy traders use to position on silver without touching futures, has turned sharply bullish since late March.

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The put-call volume ratio, where a reading below one means calls outnumber puts, has dropped from 0.77 on March 26 to 0.49 on April 21. The open interest ratio has fallen from 0.60 to 0.56 over the same window. Call activity is outpacing put activity on both intraday and structural horizons.

SLV implied volatility sits at 54.26% with an IV Percentile of 69%, meaning options are pricing expected movement above most of the past year’s range. Traders are leaning long and paying up for the range.

Want more insights like this? Sign up for Editor Harsh Notariya’s Daily Newsletter here.

SLV Put-Call Ratio
SLV Put-Call Ratio: Barchart

Positioning on the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD ETF), the equivalent physical-backed vehicle for gold exposure, looks different. The volume ratio has dropped from 1.35 on March 26 to 0.87, a shift from bearish to mildly bullish. The open interest ratio has barely moved from 0.53 to 0.54. Traders have stopped stacking downside protection on gold but have not rotated into aggressive call accumulation either.

GLD Put-Call Ratio
GLD Put-Call Ratio: Barchart

With indicators and positioning pointing the same way, the charts become the decider.

The Gold vs Silver Verdict Rests on Two Inverse Setups

The silver price (XAG/USD) daily chart has been carving out an inverse head and shoulders, a bullish reversal shape made of three lows with the middle one being the deepest. The pattern’s head sits near $60, and the neckline runs close to $80. The right shoulder’s buying volume sits marginally above its matching selling volume, offering subtle confirmation of strength

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A clean break above the $80 to $83 zone would activate a 43% projection toward roughly $115, pushing price near the $121 all-time high. The optimistic extension sits at $133 as a stretch target. A drop below $75 weakens the structure, a move under $69 risks invalidation, and a breach of $60 ends the bullish thesis.

Silver Price Analysis
Silver Price Analysis: TradingView

Gold price is building the same pattern but with weaker confirmation. The right shoulder’s selling volume pillar sits above the matching buy volume, the opposite of silver’s read, showing weaker strength. The neckline sits near $4,848, and a confirmed break above that level opens a 24% path to $5,934 from the neckline. That upside is roughly half of silver’s measured move.

Gold Price Analysis
Gold Price Analysis: TradingView

The gold-silver ratio from earlier provides the deciding context as the pattern too favors silver for now.

In the gold vs silver race, silver holds the volume confirmation, the cleaner options flow, and the larger projection. However, gold’s safe haven floor rests on central bank demand. Silver’s break above $80 opens a path to $115 and extends the lead. But a rejection there and a loss of $75 could hand momentum back to gold.

The post A 43% Projection Is Calling the Gold vs Silver Winner as Oil Cools appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Clarity Act Markup Slips to May as Tillis Seeks More Time, But OCC Advances Stablecoin Rules

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Clarity Act Markup Slips to May as Tillis Seeks More Time, But OCC Advances Stablecoin Rules

The Senate Banking Committee’s Clarity Act markup is tracking toward May after Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told reporters he does not expect the committee to act in April.

Tillis, the lead negotiator on stablecoin yield provisions, wants more time to hear from banking stakeholders. The delay pushes the earliest possible window to the week of May 11.

Bank Lobbying Pressures Tillis on Stablecoin Yield

Tillis’s office has faced a coordinated pressure campaign from bank lobbying groups, including the North Carolina Bankers Association.

Banks have objected to details of a stablecoin yield compromise reached earlier this month between select crypto firms and banks, even though the full text has not been publicly released.

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“It’s very important to me not to accelerate things, to hear everybody, and give them a rational basis for what we do accept,” Sen. Thom Tillis, reportedly told reporters.

However, Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) pushed back sharply, warning that “further delay is unacceptable” and that the offshore risk is real.

The Digital Chamber also sent a letter to Banking Committee leadership urging immediate action.

The trade group noted more than 270 days have passed since the House passed the Clarity Act.

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OCC Advances GENIUS Act Stablecoin Framework

Meanwhile, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is moving forward with its proposed rule to implement the GENIUS Act.

The rule would establish licensing, reserve, and redemption standards for payment stablecoin issuers under federal oversight. The public comment period closes May 1.

The parallel tracks highlight a split in the pace of US crypto regulation. While the OCC builds out stablecoin supervision, the broader market structure bill faces growing political friction.

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The post Clarity Act Markup Slips to May as Tillis Seeks More Time, But OCC Advances Stablecoin Rules appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Ex-FTX CEO Withdraws Motion for a New Trial, Still Asks for New Judge

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Ex-FTX CEO Withdraws Motion for a New Trial, Still Asks for New Judge

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, serving a 25-year sentence for his role in misusing user funds at the crypto exchange, has dropped a motion in federal court requesting a new trial for his criminal case, but still has a pending appeal of his conviction and sentence.

In a Wednesday filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Bankman-Fried responded to a March 23 letter from Judge Lewis Kaplan ordering the former FTX CEO to answer whether he received any assistance from lawyers for a pro se motion — a filing on his own behalf without an attorney. Kaplan’s order followed US prosecutors raising doubts whether the convicted company founder filed for an extension of his request for a new trial by himself in March, just a few days after his mother, Barbara Fried, though lacking standing, sent a letter to the court on her son’s behalf.

“I am the author of this letter, but did consult with my parents about it, since it concerns both of them,” said Bankman-Fried, referring to an extension to file for a Rule 33 motion for a new trial, adding:

“As I have had to focus on responding to these questions rather than drafting a response to the prosecution’s opposition, and because I do not believe I will get a fair hearing on this topic in front of you, I am now requesting to withdraw the Rule 33 motion, without prejudice to renewing it after my direct appeal and the related request for reassignment have been ruled upon.”

Letter from Sam Bankman-Fried, made public on Wednesday. Source: Courtlistener

Bankman-Fried requested in February that a different judge rule on his motion for a new trial, claiming that Kaplan showed “extreme prejudice.” He also awaits a decision on his appeal of his conviction and sentence in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Neither filing was apparently affected by Bankman-Fried’s letter, posted to the public docket on Wednesday.

Related: Interview with SBF’s parents drops chance of pardon on betting markets

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Bankman-Fried, known as SBF, was once the CEO of one of the largest crypto exchanges globally before he was convicted of fraud and charges related to his misuse of customer funds in 2023 and later sentenced to 25 years in prison. As of Wednesday, he was housed at the Federal Correctional Institution, Lompoc I, in California.

Is SBF still seeking Trump pardon?

Following his incarceration, the former FTX CEO has made several public statements through interviews and his social media accounts signaling plans to apply for a presidential pardon from Donald Trump.

His request for a new trial included claims that former US President Joe Biden’s Justice Department “threatened multiple witnesses into silence or into changing their testimony“ at his criminal trial. He has also posted to X praising Trump’s crypto policies and the president’s military actions in Iran.

In a January New York Times interview, Trump said that he had no intention of pardoning the convicted former FTX CEO.

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