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Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) Wallet Loses $69,300,000 Worth of Crypto in Apparent Address Poisoning Scam

May 04, 2024

A crypto wallet lost $69.3 million worth of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) in an apparent address-poisoning attack, according to the blockchain security firm CertiK.

Address poisoning usually involves a scammer sending a wallet a tiny amount of crypto via an address that’s designed to look similar to the wallet’s, according to an explanation provided by Ledger, a digital asset wallet provider.

The ploy is designed to trick wallet holders into mistakenly copying the scammer’s address from their transaction history and having funds sent to that wallet instead.

In this instance, CertiK notes that a scammer mimicked a transfer of 0.05 Ethereum (ETH), which tricked the victim into sending 1,155 WBTC worth $69.3 million to the wrong address.

WBTC is an ERC-20 token pegged to the price of BTC, allowing traders to speculate on Bitcoin while staying within the Ethereum ecosystem. The 16th-ranked crypto asset by market cap is trading at $62,953 at time of writing and is up nearly 7% in the past 24 hours.

The blockchain security firm Peckshield notes that the scammer swapped out the stolen WBTC for 23,000 ETH and then transferred them out.

Ethereum is trading at $3,116 at time of writing. The second-ranked crypto asset by market cap is up more than 4% in the past 24 hours.

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