American Artist Loses Bitcoin Retirement Savings Worth $420K Through Fraudulent Ledger Application
Garrett Dutton, a musician from the United States, reported losing his Bitcoin retirement savings valued at $420,000 following the download of a counterfeit Ledger application from Apple's App Store, which prompted him to disclose his seed phrase.
American musician Garrett Dutton, who performs under the stage name "G. Love," disclosed that he lost Bitcoin valued at $420,000 following the installation of a fraudulent application that mimicked the legitimate Ledger Live self-custody cryptocurrency app from Apple's App Store, subsequently providing his seed phrase to the malicious software.
"I had a really tough day," Dutton shared with his audience of 67,500 followers through a post on X published on Saturday, noting that his accumulated stash of 5.9 Bitcoin (BTC) vanished "in an instant" after approximately a decade of collecting the digital currency to fund his retirement years.
In a subsequent post, cryptocurrency investigator ZachXBT revealed that Dutton's Bitcoin had been transferred to deposit addresses associated with the cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin through a series of nine separate transactions. KuCoin responded to the post with a statement that appeared to be their standard message directed toward customers.
The occurrence underscores an ongoing challenge that malicious actors continue to present within the cryptocurrency industry. On Tuesday, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation disclosed that American citizens suffered losses exceeding $11 billion from cryptocurrency-related incidents throughout 2025, representing an increase from the $9 billion documented in the prior year.
Dutton explained that he was deceived into revealing his seed phrase following the download of the harmful software on his newly acquired Apple MacBook Neo, though he refrained from specifying which particular link he utilized.
"I been in the crypto circus since 2017. Today they caught me off guard. It was my own damn fault for not being more diligent. But let it serve as a warning. There's so many scams," he added.
Cointelegraph conducted a search but was unable to locate the fraudulent Ledger app on Apple's App Store at the time of publication. Cointelegraph contacted Apple requesting comment but had not received an immediate response.
Fake Ledger apps have appeared on Microsoft's store
Fraudsters have been implementing this counterfeit Ledger app tactic since no later than 2023.
During that year, Bitcoin worth nearly $600,000 was pilfered from multiple users who had downloaded a fraudulent Ledger Live application available through Microsoft's app store.
Microsoft acknowledged that the harmful app had successfully evaded its review process and removed it from the platform shortly thereafter.