Fake Ledger Mac app stole $9.5M from 50+ users, including G. Love

A counterfeit Ledger Live application on Apple’s Mac App Store removed on April 13 stole roughly $9.5 million in cryptocurrency from more than 50 users between April 7 and April 13, according to an on-chain analysis by pseudonymous investigator ZachXBT. Victims lost assets including Bitcoin, Solana, XRP and USDT.

ZachXBT traced transactions tied to the malicious app and identified multiple large losses. At least three wallets lost more than $1.95 million each, and one wallet was emptied of about $3.27 million in USDT. The analysis shows the scheme was active on the App Store for nearly a week before removal.

Musician Garrett Dutton, known as G. Love, posted on X that he lost 5.92 BTC, which he described as his retirement funds, after downloading the fake app while moving his Ledger hardware wallet to a new computer. “I had a really tough day today. I lost my retirement fund in a hack/scam when I switched my Ledger over to my new computer and by accident downloaded a malicious Ledger app from the Apple Store. All my BTC gone in an instant,” he wrote.

According to the transaction traces, stolen funds were moved through more than 150 deposit addresses at the exchange KuCoin and then routed to AudiA6, a centralized mixing service used to obscure the origin of funds. KuCoin’s support team told the musician it had frozen a suspicious account connected to the transfers but noted that freezing or returning funds requires legal documentation and formal procedures.

Apple and Ledger did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Ledger has repeatedly warned customers that fake applications, websites, phone calls, emails and letters are common phishing methods used to steal keys and funds from hardware wallet users.

Federal authorities previously recovered and forfeited about $600,000 in a separate fraud that used fake letters purporting to be from Ledger, a seizure carried out by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut in September 2025. KuCoin has faced regulatory actions in recent months, including restrictions on services to U.S. users unless it registers as a foreign board of trade and a $14 million anti-money-laundering fine in Canada the prior year.