2024-05-04
In a single transaction, an anonymous trader lost a staggering $68 million worth of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) in a deceitful address-poisoning scam.
This significant theft came to light through the diligent efforts of on-chain security firm Cyvers, who revealed the incident in a post on May 3.
Cyvers expressed their astonishment, questioning whether the loss of $68 million worth of WBTC was indeed accurate.
They confirmed their detection system identified another victim of address poisoning, resulting in the loss of 1,155 WBTC.
The unfortunate victim, identified as wallet "0x1E," suffered a devastating blow, losing over 97% of its total assets.
The value of the lost assets amounted to a staggering $67.8 million, as reported by CoinStats.
Address poisoning, also known as address spoofing, preys on the negligence and haste of traders during transactions.
Scammers employ this tactic to deceive unsuspecting victims into sending their digital assets to fraudulent addresses under the scammers' control.
Regrettably, scams persistently undermine trust in the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies.
In April, investors experienced losses of at least $33 million in the ZKasino gambling platform fraud case.
Dutch authorities took action by arresting a suspect connected to the ZKasino scam on April 29.
Despite the ZKasino incident, the month of April witnessed a comparatively lower figure of $25.7 million lost to scams and hacks.
This represents the lowest recorded amount since 2021 when CertiK, an on-chain intelligence firm, began tracking such data.
The report from CertiK reveals a significant 141% decrease in losses from hacks, exploits, and scams compared to the previous month.
This decline can largely be attributed to the absence of private key compromises. In April, only three private key leaks occurred, whereas March witnessed more than 11 attacks resulting from private key compromises.
It is important to note that CertiK's figures do not include the $33 million ZKasino scam. While the report acknowledges the project's controversial nature, it has not yet classified it as a scam.
On April 22, ZKasino raised investor concerns when it transferred all 10,515 Ether deposited by investors into the Lido staking protocol.
CertiK's report indicates that their figures will be updated if ZKasino is officially confirmed as a malicious actor.
