Users lose $9.5M to fake Ledger wallet app on the Apple App Store

Source article: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/04/14/a-fake-ledger-a...

Choice quote:

> Blockchain investigator ZachXBT later traced the stolen 5.92 BTC [0], showing it was rapidly funneled through a series of transactions into KuCoin deposit addresses, consistent with a broader laundering pattern identified across the incident.

Ah, there's nothing else quite like a Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange which was booted from the US for facilitating money laundering. This is good for Bitcoin.

[0]: https://t.me/investigations/313#

I thought that Apple was reviewing each and every app which was the reason that justified them getting a silly 30% margin from all app revenues?

Thankfully the App Store doesn't allow side loading, because it completely stops fraud like this. At least that's the number one reason why I keep getting told if we allow side loading this will happen.

Entering your seed phrase with that much money on a phone is really non-sense :/

Unidirectional wall garden.

They only needed it to exist on the app store for a week before stealing millions with zero recourse. These wealthy crypto people need to stop being cheap and hire financial advisors. The only reason for not doing so is if it was gained illegally in the first place.

This should not have happened. But I have a hard time finding any sympathy for cryptocurrency folks. The quote from the article:

"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."

Leaves me really shaking my head. If someone has the knowledge to even buy bitcoin or cryptocurrency, I imagine they have enough knowledge to know how utterly crime-ridden and risky of a speculation it is. It's like if someone decides to put their retirement fund into buying bulk illegal drugs and then selling them at a massive markup. Pretty risky, potential high upside, but given they assessed and then accepted the risk, hard to feel bad when they get robbed of all their drugs and lose their retirement funds.

Apple should be liable for this.

If Walmart sells a dangerous product, even unknowingly, they can be liable. Why are digital stores different?

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Apple should be on the hook for that. If you moderate, you are responsible for damage.