Exploiter Steals $68M Worth of Crypto Through Address Poisoning

{
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  "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/"
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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/"
  ],
  "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>$2,826.89</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>More For You</p><div><div><p>Protocol Research: GoPlus Security</p></div><div><figure><img alt=\"GP Basic Image\" srcset=\"https://www.coindesk.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2Fs3y3vcno%2Fproduction%2F84a8eb9a12b91c3b7656ac7b18dcf5f1e79f21e2-3840x2160.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%2F84a8eb9a12b91c3b7656ac7b18dcf5f1e79f21e2-3840x2160.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%2F84a8eb9a12b91c3b7656ac7b18dcf5f1e79f21e2-3840x2160.png%3Fauto%3Dformat&amp;w=3840&amp;q=75\" /></figure><div><p>What to know: </p><div><ul><li>As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.</li><li>GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.</li><li>Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.</li></ul></div></div><p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://www.coindesk.com/research/protocol-research-goplus-security\">View Full Report<svg width=\"21\" height=\"21\"></svg></a></p></div></div></div><div><p>More For You</p><div><p>BitMine Immersion Added Nearly 70K Ether Last Week, Now Holding 3% of ETH Supply</p><figure><img alt=\"Screenshot of Tom Lee on CoinDesk TV (CoinDesk)\" srcset=\"https://www.coindesk.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2Fs3y3vcno%2Fproduction%2F13c2f3d8f4a14835d564bac5cf5d5cdd106bdcfd-1919x1080.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%2F13c2f3d8f4a14835d564bac5cf5d5cdd106bdcfd-1919x1080.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%2F13c2f3d8f4a14835d564bac5cf5d5cdd106bdcfd-1919x1080.png%3Fauto%3Dformat&amp;w=3840&amp;q=75\" /></figure><p>Tom Lee's company increased its crypto holdings last week despite sitting on around $4 billion in unrealized losses on its ETH bet.</p><div><p>What to know: </p><div><ul><li>BitMine Immersion Technology (BMNR) purchased 69,822 ETH last week, bringing its holdings to 3.63 million tokens, now owning 3% of the supply.</li><li>The firm's cash holdings rose to $800 million, contributing to a total of $11.2 billion in combined assets.</li><li>Digital asset treasuries are facing pressure as their stock prices plunge below the value of the underlying assets.</li></ul></div></div><p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/11/24/bitmine-immersion-added-nearly-70k-ether-last-week-now-holding-3-of-eth-supply\">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": 82,
  "type": "newsarticle"
}