Exploiter Steals $68M Worth of Crypto Through Address Poisoning

{
  "by": "gulced",
  "descendants": 0,
  "id": 40248755,
  "score": 2,
  "time": 1714749898,
  "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/"
}

{
  "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",
  "logo": "https://logo.clearbit.com/coindesk.com",
  "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/"
  ],
  "image": "https://cdn.sanity.io/images/s3y3vcno/production/6923046d9a52fac72269f7dd0d26ff84da658711-3240x1823.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 <span><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://www.coindesk.com/price/wrapped-bitcoin\"><span><span><span>WBTC</span><span><svg height=\"24\" width=\"25\"></svg></span><span>$117,630.48</span></span></span></a></span> 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 {{ETH}} 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>More For You</p><div><p>Tristan Thompson Taps Somnia to Bring Basketball Fandom On-Chain</p><figure><img alt=\"Tristan Thompson and Herman Narula (Basketball.fun)\" srcset=\"https://www.coindesk.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2Fs3y3vcno%2Fproduction%2Ffc0b6ed9698948e28fb7d08ca452cf66ded175bb-1806x1204.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%2Ffc0b6ed9698948e28fb7d08ca452cf66ded175bb-1806x1204.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%2Ffc0b6ed9698948e28fb7d08ca452cf66ded175bb-1806x1204.png%3Fauto%3Dformat&amp;w=3840&amp;q=75\" /></figure><p>The NBA champion is launching an on-chain experience this October that tokenizes player value in real time.</p><div><p>What to know: </p><div><ul><li>The project will tokenize NBA players, letting fans speculate on rising talent and earn rewards tied to sentiment and performance.</li><li>Built on Somnia, a new Layer 1 that launched September 2, the platform leans on speed, scalability and billions in early trading volume.</li><li>Co-founder Hadi Teherany says the app avoids native token dependence, focusing instead on infrastructure, gamification and fan empowerment.</li></ul></div></div><p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/09/18/tristan-thompson-taps-somnia-to-bring-basketball-fandom-on-chain\">Read full story<svg width=\"21\" height=\"21\"></svg></a></p></div></div>",
  "author": "@coindesk",
  "favicon": "https://www.coindesk.com/favicons/production/favicon-32x32.png",
  "source": "coindesk.com",
  "published": "2024-05-03t14:07:07.117z",
  "ttr": 56,
  "type": "website"
}