Massive Loss: Trader’s $68M Scam in Address Poisoning

In a recent incident of address-poisoning scam, an anonymous trader lost $68 million worth of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) in a single transaction. This theft was brought to light by on-chain security firm Cyvers on May 3. The victim, known as wallet “0x1E,” lost 97% of its assets, which were valued at $67.8 million, as per CoinStats.

Address poisoning, also referred to as address spoofing, is a tactic used by scammers to take advantage of traders’ negligence and urgency during transactions. They deceive victims into sending their digital assets to fraudulent addresses owned by the scammers.

Unfortunately, scams continue to plague the trust of mainstream investors in the cryptocurrency industry. In April, there was a significant fraud case involving the ZKasino gambling platform, which resulted in a loss of at least $33 million for investors. Dutch authorities made an arrest related to this scam on April 29.

Despite the ZKasino incident, the month of April only witnessed $25.7 million worth of cryptocurrency lost to scams and hacks. This is the lowest figure recorded since 2021 when CertiK, an on-chain intelligence firm, started monitoring such data. The report from CertiK revealed a 141% decrease in losses from hacks, exploits, and scams compared to the previous month. This decline can mainly be attributed to the absence of private key compromises. In April, there were only three cases of private key leaks, while March had over 11 instances of private key compromises.

It is worth noting that the figures provided by CertiK do not include the $33 million ZKasino scam. Although the project is considered to be in the midst of a controversy, it has not been officially labeled as a scam. Concerns grew when ZKasino transferred all 10,515 Ether (ETH) deposited by investors into the Lido staking protocol on April 22.

CertiK stated in its report that it would update the data if ZKasino was confirmed to be acting maliciously and engaging in fraudulent activities. It is essential for investors to remain vigilant and exercise caution while engaging in cryptocurrency transactions to avoid falling victim to scams.