A single transaction error led to one of many largest onchain losses seen this 12 months, after a person mistakenly despatched almost $50 million in USDt to a rip-off handle in a traditional handle poisoning assault.
In response to onchain investigator Web3 Antivirus, the sufferer misplaced 49,999,950 USDt (USDT) after copying a malicious pockets handle from their transaction historical past.
Handle poisoning scams depend on look-alike pockets addresses being inserted right into a sufferer’s transaction historical past through small transfers. When victims later copy an handle from their transaction historical past, they could unknowingly choose the scammer’s lookalike handle as a substitute of the supposed recipient.
Onchain information reveals the sufferer initially despatched a small take a look at transaction to the right handle. Minutes later, nonetheless, the total $50 million switch was despatched to the poisoned handle.
Associated: Attacker takes over multisig minutes after creation, drains as much as $40M slowly
Delicate handle similarity sufficient to idiot skilled customers
Safety researcher Cos, founding father of SlowMist, famous the similarity between the addresses was refined however sufficient to deceive even skilled customers. “You’ll be able to see the primary 3 characters and final 4 characters are the identical,” he wrote.
The sufferer’s pockets had been energetic for roughly two years and was primarily used for USDt transfers, based on onchain evaluation. Shortly earlier than the loss, the funds have been withdrawn from Binance, suggesting the pockets was being actively managed on the time of the incident.
“That is the brutal actuality of handle poisoning, an assault that doesn’t depend on breaking programs, however on exploiting human habits,” one other onchain analyst wrote.
The attacker has since swapped the stolen USDt for Ether (ETH), splitting it into a number of wallets, and partially moved it into Twister Money.
Associated: Binance denies experiences of delayed motion over funds linked to Upbit hack
Crypto hacks hit $3.4 billion in 2025
As Cointelegraph reported, crypto-related hacks resulted in $3.4 billion in losses in 2025, marking the best annual complete since 2022. The surge was largely pushed by a handful of large breaches concentrating on main crypto entities fairly than a broad rise in common assault dimension.
Simply three incidents accounted for 69% of complete losses this 12 months, led by the $1.4 billion hack of crypto alternate Bybit, which alone made up almost half of all stolen funds.
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