An unsuspecting crypto person has just lately misplaced $50 million USDT in an tackle poisoning rip-off. The incident represents one of many largest on-chain losses in 2025, drawing reactions from crypto safety consultants as new developments on the matter roll in.
Copy-Paste Mistake Prices Person 50M USDT
Tackle poisoning is a rip-off wherein an attacker sends small transactions from a pockets tackle that carefully resembles a sufferer’s legit tackle, hoping the sufferer will later copy the fallacious tackle from their transaction historical past and unknowingly ship funds to the attacker.
Blockchain safety web page, Web3 Antivirus stories {that a} crypto person just lately fell sufferer to this rip-off, sending 49,999,950 USDT to a poisoned tackle copied from transaction historical past. Contemplating the big transaction, the person had tried taking warning by sending a small check transaction to the proper tackle. Nonetheless, the character of tackle poisoning requires shut monitoring, the place attackers are capable of instantly ship mud transactions from wallets resembling the meant tackle.
Cos, founding father of fellow safety platform Slowmist, supplied precious insights on this operation, noting the similarity between each addresses, which shared the identical first 3 characters and final 4 characters. The sufferer unknowingly picked the poisoned tackle from the transaction historical past to finish the $50 million, thus marking one of many greatest on-chain particular person losses of 2025.
Extra information from Web3 Antivirus reveals that the sufferer pockets has been lively on-chain for about two years and is primarily used for USDT transfers. The stolen $50 million was additionally initially withdrawn from Binance earlier than the rip-off occurred. Notably, the stolen USDT has since been transformed to ETH by the attackers and shared amongst a number of wallets, who’ve additionally funneled among the loot by means of Twister Money.
Tackle Poisoning Sufferer Presents Bounty With 48-Hour Ultimatum
In different information, blockchain investigator Specter Analyst stories that the sufferer has tried to determine communication with the attackers by way of an on-chain message.
In line with an X publish on December 20, the sufferer claims to have filed a prison criticism case whereas additionally enlisting the related regulation enforcement, cybersecurity, and blockchain protocols to supply wanted intelligence on the scammer’s actions. Moreover, all six addresses related to the heist at the moment are beneath fixed surveillance. Nonetheless, the aggrieved celebration is providing the perpetrators of the tackle poisoning a peaceable decision, which entails the prepared return of 98% of the loot to a specified tackle inside 48 hours.
Notably, the sufferer will enable the dangerous actors to maintain $1 million as a bug bounty for recognizing such a vulnerability of their operations. Nonetheless, they warn that failure to simply accept the amicable provide inside the stipulated time will end in authorized escalation of the matter to worldwide regulation enforcement authorities. They additional warn that the attackers’ identities can be revealed and shared with the related businesses to assist their arrest and persecution. At press time, whole crypto losses in 2025 have surpassed $3.4 billion, underscoring the necessity for frequently strengthened safety measures inside the thriving ecosystem.
Featured picture from Chainalysis, chart from Tradingview
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