The cash I had fastidiously saved over 10 years was gone in only one afternoon. That is what occurred to Garrett Dutton, the American musician often known as G. Love. He misplaced 5.9 Bitcoins (value about $420,000) when a malicious app tricked him into giving somebody the one factor he wasn’t speculated to share.
Retirement fund constructed up over a few years
Mr. Dutton had been accumulating Bitcoin since 2017, treating it as a long-term retirement plan. On Saturday, he posted about his losses on X, telling his 67,500 followers that the cash disappeared straight away.
Garrett Dutton, aka G Love. Supply: The Ark
He mentioned he downloaded issues just like the Ledger Stay app, a self-custody crypto software, from Apple’s App Retailer on his new MacBook. The app was pretend. As soon as inside, I used to be requested to enter a seed phrase. He did. I’ve run out of cash.
“I have been within the crypto circus since 2017,” he wrote in a follow-up put up. “At this time they caught me off guard. It is my very own fault for not appearing extra diligently. However let this function a warning. There are such a lot of scams on the market.”
Blockchain researcher ZachXBT tracked the stolen funds shortly thereafter and found that the bitcoins had been moved to deposit addresses related to cryptocurrency alternate KuCoin over 9 separate transactions.
At this time was a very robust day. I misplaced my retirement cash to hacking/fraud after I made the change. @ledger I moved to a brand new laptop and by accident downloaded a malicious ledger app. @apple store. All my BTC was gone straight away.
— G. Love (@glove) April 11, 2026
KuCoin responded to ZachXBT’s put up with a press release sometimes addressed to prospects. Dutton didn’t say which hyperlink led to the unauthorized obtain.
Picture: Da-kuk through Getty Pictures
Pretend pockets apps have fooled individuals earlier than
This is not the primary time scammers have pulled off this actual transfer. Again in 2023, a counterfeit model of the Ledger Stay app appeared on Microsoft’s app retailer, siphoning practically $600,000 from a number of customers earlier than being eliminated.
Howdy, I tracked down 5.92 BTC that was stolen and it was all laundered within the following means. @kucoincom Deposit tackle for the next transactions:
6f5c8eb6b01774626f33527e0cb03c0d1860447acacd6079e69bf41b459bcf1f
9ee1288f941b2c3775ebd125eefeebdc713aa160bf2cf9d18661fd07f84ce891…— Zach XBT (@zachxbt) April 12, 2026
Microsoft later confirmed that the app handed the assessment course of undetected. Apple didn’t reply to a request for remark.
BTCUSD at the moment buying and selling at $70,879. Chart: TradingView
Bitcoin losses throughout the nation proceed to rise
Dutton’s case is an element of a bigger drawback. In accordance with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, People will lose greater than $11 billion to crypto-related fraud in 2025, up from $9 billion the yr earlier than.
The seed phrase is the grasp key to your self-custodial crypto pockets. A official pockets software doesn’t require any display enter from the person. It was a line Dutton had crossed with out realizing it – and by the point he had crossed it, there was nothing left to get well from.
Featured pictures from Pexels, charts from TradingView
