A malicious Ledger Live clone on Apple's App Store seems to have drained $9.5M+ from 50+ victims on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Tron, and XRP from April 7 to 13
CoinDeskOliver Knight
Context & Ripple Effects
This is not the first time an Apple-distributed imitation wallet app has been tied to crypto losses: related coverage documented a fake Trezor app downloaded from the App Store in 2021, while Ledger has separately dealt with phishing-enabled compromise of its Connect Kit and exposure of customer records.
The incident matters because a clone carrying the Ledger Live identity appears to have affected users across several major crypto networks, making App Store review and wallet-brand trust part of the immediate security boundary rather than merely a distribution convenience.
First-order effects
More than 50 apparent victims face losses across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Tron, and XRP after interacting with the malicious App Store listing.
Apple and Ledger Live must address a trust failure around app authenticity: Apple in its store controls, and Ledger in how users identify and verify its official software.
Second-order effects
Wallet providers and crypto-app developers face pressure to make official-download paths and in-app authenticity checks harder to spoof, particularly on mobile platforms users treat as vetted.
The episode can push users toward hardware-wallet verification and direct vendor channels, while raising the reputational cost to Apple when fraudulent financial apps pass marketplace review.
Third-order effects
If repeat cases persist, mobile app-store distribution becomes a more contested security layer for crypto self-custody, shifting differentiation toward verifiable software provenance rather than brand recognition alone.
The pattern may increase scrutiny of how platform operators review and remove financial impersonation apps, though the corpus does not establish what enforcement response Apple will take here.
The trend: Crypto security risk is increasingly concentrated at the interfaces where users authenticate trusted brands and install wallet software, not only in the underlying blockchains or devices.
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.
@glove ... Hi I traced out your 5.92 BTC stolen and it was all laundered via @kucoincom deposit addresses in the following transactions: 6f5c8eb6b01774626f33527e0cb03c0d1860447 acacd6079e69bf41b459bcf1f 9ee1288f941b2c3775ebd125eefeebdc713aa16 0bf2cf9d18661fd07f84ce891
Here's the TX hash from my hack I lost 5.9 BTC all I had for ten years I worked on this fuuuuuck be careful out there 8753c7d24a28f677089aefb09628eb9b191e843 ae965f55ca8ae87540561feaf
🚨 REKT: Bitcoin user https://g.love/ lost 5.92 BTC after downloading a fake Ledger app from the Apple App Store, with funds quickly laundered through a CEX. [image]
@Cointelegraph $9.5M in a week means the app had reviews, a decent rating, looked legit. This isn't a “check the developer” problem — it's an App Store trust problem.
A malicious Ledger crypto-wallet that managed to sneak onto the official Mac App Store has stolen almost $10 million from more 50 victims. App was live for almost 2 weeks: https://t.me/... One of the campaign's victims is American singer Garrett Dutton, who lost his retirement …