Exploiter Steals $68M Worth of Crypto Through Address Poisoning

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  "title": "Exploiter Steals $68M Worth of Crypto Through Address Poisoning",
  "type": "story",
  "url": "https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/05/03/exploiter-steals-68m-worth-of-crypto-through-address-poisoning/"
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{
  "author": "Oliver Knight",
  "date": "2024-05-03T14:13:48.835Z",
  "description": "A cryptocurrency user has lost $68 million worth of wrapped bitcoin (WBTC) after falling victim to an “address poisoning” exploit, according to blockchain security firm CertiK.",
  "image": "https://cdn.sanity.io/images/s3y3vcno/production/6923046d9a52fac72269f7dd0d26ff84da658711-3240x1823.jpg?auto=format&w=960&h=540&crop=focalpoint&fit=clip&q=75&fm=jpg",
  "logo": null,
  "publisher": "CoinDesk",
  "title": "Exploiter Steals $68M Worth of Crypto Through Address Poisoning",
  "url": "https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/05/03/exploiter-steals-68m-worth-of-crypto-through-address-poisoning"
}

{
  "url": "https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/05/03/exploiter-steals-68m-worth-of-crypto-through-address-poisoning",
  "title": "Exploiter Steals $68M Worth of Crypto Through Address Poisoning",
  "description": "The victim was duped by a mimicked 0.05 ether transfer.Updated May 3, 2024, 2:13 p.m. Published May 3, 2024, 2:07 p.m. A user unintentionally sent 1,155 wrapped bitcoin to an exploiter's wallet after being...",
  "links": [
    "https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/05/03/exploiter-steals-68m-worth-of-crypto-through-address-poisoning",
    "https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/05/03/exploiter-steals-68m-worth-of-crypto-through-address-poisoning/"
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  "image": "https://cdn.sanity.io/images/s3y3vcno/production/6923046d9a52fac72269f7dd0d26ff84da658711-3240x1823.jpg?auto=format&w=960&h=540&crop=focalpoint&fit=clip&q=75&fm=jpg",
  "content": "<div><h2>The victim was duped by a mimicked 0.05 ether transfer.</h2><p><span>Updated May 3, 2024, 2:13 p.m. </span><span>Published May 3, 2024, 2:07 p.m. </span></p></div><div><ul><li>A user unintentionally sent 1,155 wrapped bitcoin to an exploiter's wallet after being targeted by address poisoning.</li><li>The scam has been confirmed by various blockchain security firms.</li></ul><hr /><p>A cryptocurrency user has lost $68 million worth of wrapped bitcoin (WBTC) after falling victim to an address poisoning exploit, according to <a href=\"https://twitter.com/CertiKAlert/status/1786378165050306774\" target=\"_blank\">blockchain security firm CertiK</a>.</p><p>Address poisoning is a technique that involves tricking the victim into sending a legitimate transaction to the wrong wallet address by mimicking the first and last six characters of the true wallet address and depending on the sender to miss the discrepancy in the intervening characters. Wallet addresses can be as long as 42 characters.</p><p>In this case, the exploiter mimicked a 0.05 ether <span><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://www.coindesk.com/price/ethereum\"><span><span><span>ETH</span><span><svg height=\"24\" width=\"24\"></svg></span><span>$3,824.76</span></span></span></a></span> transaction before receiving 1,155 WBTC from the victim.</p><p>Security platform <a href=\"https://twitter.com/CyversAlerts/status/1786363410243858869\" target=\"_blank\">Cyvers</a> and blockchain sleuth <a href=\"https://t.me/investigations/114\" target=\"_blank\">ZachXBT</a> confirmed that $68 million had been lost to an address poisoning scam.</p><p>Crypto investors <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2023/12/27/crypto-users-lost-2b-to-hacks-scams-and-exploits-in-2023-defi-says/\">lost $2 billion to hacks</a>, scams and exploits across decentralized finance (DeFi) in 2023 and an additional <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://www.coindesk.com/video/crypto-lost-dollar333m-to-hacks-in-q1-of-2024-immunefi/\">$333 million was stolen</a> in the first quarter.</p></div><div><p>Más para ti</p><div><div><p>OwlTing: Stablecoin Infrastructure for the Future</p></div><div><figure><img alt=\"OwlTing Report Open Graph Image\" srcset=\"https://www.coindesk.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2Fs3y3vcno%2Fproduction%2F9279ad8313e84cc2a140760083a30ef273724ccd-2400x1260.png%3Fauto%3Dformat&amp;w=1920&amp;q=75 1x, https://www.coindesk.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2Fs3y3vcno%2Fproduction%2F9279ad8313e84cc2a140760083a30ef273724ccd-2400x1260.png%3Fauto%3Dformat&amp;w=3840&amp;q=75 2x\" src=\"https://www.coindesk.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2Fs3y3vcno%2Fproduction%2F9279ad8313e84cc2a140760083a30ef273724ccd-2400x1260.png%3Fauto%3Dformat&amp;w=3840&amp;q=75\" /></figure><p>Stablecoin payment volumes have grown to $19.4B year-to-date in 2025. OwlTing aims to capture this market by developing payment infrastructure that processes transactions in seconds for fractions of a cent.</p><p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://www.coindesk.com/research/owlting-stablecoin-infrastructure-for-the-future\">View Full Report<svg width=\"21\" height=\"21\"></svg></a></p></div></div></div><div><p>More For You</p><div><p>OpenAI Eyes Massive $1T IPO as Early as 2026: Reuters</p><p><img alt=\"Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO (TechCrunch/Wikimedia Commons, modified by CoinDesk)\" title=\"16:9 Sam Altman, OpenAI, Worldcoin, WRD, Artificial Intelligence, Microsoft (TechCrunch/Wikimedia Commons, modified by CoinDesk)\" srcset=\"https://www.coindesk.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2Fs3y3vcno%2Fproduction%2Fa52eabe47a91de0c4adef4cc68b59b716964f3bc-1920x1080.jpg%3Fauto%3Dformat&amp;w=1920&amp;q=75 1x, https://www.coindesk.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2Fs3y3vcno%2Fproduction%2Fa52eabe47a91de0c4adef4cc68b59b716964f3bc-1920x1080.jpg%3Fauto%3Dformat&amp;w=3840&amp;q=75 2x\" src=\"https://www.coindesk.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2Fs3y3vcno%2Fproduction%2Fa52eabe47a91de0c4adef4cc68b59b716964f3bc-1920x1080.jpg%3Fauto%3Dformat&amp;w=3840&amp;q=75\" /></p><p>AI has become the bellwether for the general technology sector, which often correlates with the cryptocurrency market.</p><div><p>What to know: </p><div><ul><li>Artificial intelligence giant OpenAI is targeting an initial public offering (IPO) which could value the company at as much as $1 trillion.</li><li>The IPO could come as early as the second half of 2026.</li><li> AI has become the bellwether for the general technology sector, which often correlates with the cryptocurrency market.</li></ul></div></div><p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/10/30/openai-eyes-massive-usd1t-ipo-as-early-as-2026-reuters\">Read full story<svg width=\"21\" height=\"21\"></svg></a></p></div></div>",
  "author": "@coindesk",
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  "source": "coindesk.com",
  "published": "2024-05-03t14:07:07.117z",
  "ttr": 62,
  "type": "newsarticle"
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