A fraudulent Ledger Live app caused losses of at least $9.5 million in cryptocurrency, affecting over 50 users, including a famous musician.
A fraudulent Ledger Live app has reportedly enabled hackers to steal at least $9.5 million in cryptocurrency, as revealed by blockchain investigator ZachXBT. The scam, which affected over 50 individuals, ran from April 7 to 13, with losses spanning various cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, TRON, and Solana.
Among the notable victims was Garrett Dutton, the lead singer of the band G. Love, who lost his entire savings of 5.9 BTC, valued at around $420,000. Dutton downloaded the fake application on a new device and entered his recovery phrase, thus granting the attackers full access to his funds.
ZachXBT tracked the stolen cryptocurrency, which was funneled through multiple transactions to the KuCoin exchange to launder the funds. He pointed out that the exchange has been used to process over $9.5 million linked to the fraudulent app via more than 150 deposit addresses in just a week. Notably, just prior to this, another $3.5 million from a separate Bitcoin Depot incident had also been laundered through KuCoin.
“In one week, over $9.5 million was laundered through more than 150 KuCoin deposit addresses linked to the fake Ledger app,” ZachXBT stated.
Other victims experienced significant losses, such as $3.23 million in USDT, $2.08 million in USDC, and nearly $2 million in Bitcoin and Ethereum combined. Each individual compromised by the scam entered their seed phrases into the fake app, which allowed attackers to seize control of their wallets.
Additionally, ZachXBT found that the deposit addresses associated with the stolen assets were tied to a centralized crypto mixer known as AudiA6, which is notorious for high fees aimed at obscuring transaction trails.
As of now, Apple has removed the fraudulent Ledger Live app from its App Store, although questions remain about how it was approved initially. The incident has raised concerns about potential legal ramifications for the companies involved, given the extensive losses.
Ledger has not issued a formal comment regarding the incident but reminded users of essential phishing protection practices, emphasizing the increasing sophistication of scams as digital asset ownership expands.
