- Two North Korea-linked hacks stole over $570 million from KelpDAO and Drift Protocol.
- Ethereum climbed from $2,000 to $2,300 despite the heaviest hack month in over a year.
- Analysts watch the ETH golden triangle with a $10,000 target above and $1,950 as the floor.
April 2026 has become the worst month for crypto exploits since February 2025, and it is not even over yet. In just 18 days, protocols have lost more than $606 million to hacks, pushing the industry’s total losses for the year to $771.8 million.
Two attacks account for nearly all of it. The Drift Protocol hack on April 1, 2026, involved a $280–$285M exploit using social engineering and durable nonce transactions on Solana. The $292 million Kelp DAO exploit on April 18 targeted a single point of failure in LayerZero’s cross-chain messaging infrastructure. Together, they account for 95% of April’s losses and 75% of all items stolen in 2026.
Both attacks have been linked to North Korea.
Ethereum Stays Quiet
This is where market behavior diverges from expectations. Through two major exploits, $600 million in losses, and sustained negative headlines, Ethereum climbed from $2,000 to above $2,300. The market, in other words, did not panic.
Analyst Merlijn The Trader pointed to a technical structure that may explain why. Ethereum’s golden triangle, a chart formation that has held intact since 2017, has survived the COVID-19 crash, the 2022 bear market, and the current correction without breaking. Price is now at the point where a resolution in one direction or the other becomes inevitable.
The levels being watched are: a move above $4,350 opens a measured target of $10,000. A break below $1,950 would crack nine years of market structure.
The Tension Building
However, the setup is increasingly compressed. Ethereum has approached a zone where high-leverage long positions are heavily concentrated, meaning even a modest drop could trigger a cascade of liquidations. At the same time, short positions are stacking up around $2,440, creating pressure as well.
The market is coiled. Exploits that would have rattled sentiment badly in earlier cycles have barely registered in price. Whether that shows maturity or simply a temporary calm before a sharp move in either direction is the question traders are sitting with right now.
Related: David Schwartz Says KelpDAO’s Laziness Enabled The North Korean Hack
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