As discussions around crypto fraud intensify following the recent $1.5 billion Bybit hack, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is urging the industry to recognize another major risk. According to him, while much attention is given to preventing theft, not enough is done to protect people from accidental loss due to user errors. Accidental Crypto Loss Remains...Read More
Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has criticized Safe Wallet’s post-mortem update on the Bybit hack, calling it “not that great” and raising concerns about how attackers tricked multiple signers. His comments follow an audit report stating that the breach resulted from a compromise of Safe’s infrastructure rather than the exchange’s systems. Safe’s Response Forensic...Read More
The attacker behind the massive Bybit exploit has already laundered 18% of the stolen funds in just 60 hours. They are reportedly using THORChain for cross-chain swaps, moving at breakneck speeds to convert ETH into other crypto assets. $224 Million Laundered In a social media post published on February 25, blockchain analysis firm EmberCN revealed...Read More
Stablecoin Bank Infini has suffered a security breach that resulted in the theft of over $49 million in USDC. On-chain tracking platforms identified that the attack happened due to an exploiter misusing retained administrative privileges. Ex-Developer Behind the Hack CertiK was the first to detect unusual activity on February 24, reporting unauthorized fund transfers from...Read More
Non-KYC centralized exchange eXch has denied accusations that it’s laundering funds from the Bybit hack on behalf of the Lazarus Group. This was in response to social media accusations that it had moved over $30 million from the exploit. eXch’s Response In a Feb. 23 announcement posted on the Bitcointalk forum, the eXch team said...Read More
In what is considered now the largest hack within the cryptocurrency industry, Bybit’s hot wallet was compromised when trying to complete a legitimate transfer, and roughly $1.5 billion, mostly in ETH, was stolen by being sent to another address. Aside from the immediate impact on crypto prices, such a notable incident garnered the attention of...Read More
Bybit CEO Ben Zhou confirmed in a Friday livestream that the $1.5 billion hack against his crypto exchange lost the firm the vast majority of its customers’ ETH holdings. “I believe it was around seventy percent,” Zhou told viewers, when asked how much was lost relative to the company’s ETH assets under management. “We normally...Read More
Ron Branstetter, creator of the viral meme coin Unicorn Fart Dust (UFD), announced that his Phantom wallet had been hacked, leading to the loss of $6.6 million worth of UFD tokens, Solana, and other crypto assets. Branstetter shared the news during an emergency livestream, expressing heartbreak while reassuring the community of his unwavering commitment to...Read More
Dean Norris, best known for his role in Breaking Bad, has become the target of hackers again. His X account was recently compromised to promote a fraudulent meme coin named DEAN. Details from the Exploit An X user who shared a screenshot of the deleted posts described the incident as one of the “most believable”...Read More
The official X account of the global electronic marketplace Nasdaq was apparently hacked and used to promote a fake meme coin named STONKS. Blockchain data shows that the bogus token’s market cap skyrocketed to $80 million before eventually collapsing. How the Scam Unfolded According to various reports, the attackers took control of the Nasdaq account...Read More
Prominent crypto research firm SoSoValue has warned about a bogus token, SOSO, deployed on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). The company clarified that it had not released any official cryptocurrency and urged users to remain cautious to protect their assets. Scammers Use Funding News to Lure Victims SoSoValue’s warning came after on-chain analytics platform CoinSpeedrun...Read More
Several account hijackings on X over the weekend have raised alarm in the crypto community. The incidents involved the official accounts of Litecoin, Foresight Ventures, and Holoworld AI being compromised to promote fraudulent cryptocurrencies and phishing links, exposing users to potential scams. The Incidents On January 11, Litecoin confirmed that bad actors had accessed its...Read More
Crypto exchange giant Binance reportedly stopped more than $129 million from being lost to criminals in 2024. In its Anti-Scam Refund Initiative end-of-year report, the company outlined how it deployed cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies to transform digital asset security from reactive measures to proactive defense strategies. Anti-Scam Initiative According to...Read More
Blockchain gaming giant Animoca Brands revealed that co-founder and chair Yat Siu’s X account was hacked, promoting a fraudulent token on Solana’s Pump.fun platform. The attackers impersonated Animoca and falsely announced the launch of a token. Blockchain investigator ZachXBT attributed the hack to a phishing scam that has recently targeted over 15 crypto-focused X accounts,...Read More
SBI VC Trade, a crypto-focused subsidiary of Japan’s financial giant SBI Holdings, is set to inherit the accounts and assets of beleaguered crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin. The transfer will take place on March 8, 2025, marking the culmination of DMM Bitcoin’s liquidation process after a devastating $305 million hack in May 2024. Liquidation and Transfer...Read More
Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has exposed a sophisticated phishing operation that has managed to compromise over 15 X accounts. The scheme targeted investors in Solana-based meme coins and has resulted in an estimated loss of $500,000. Solana Meme Coin Fraud The Blockchain detective revealed in a December 24 social media post that the operation involved impersonating...Read More
As 2024 gradually wraps up, the web3 security firm Cyvers has released a Security, Fraud, and Compliance Report for the year, detailing how much impact cybercriminals and their operations had on the crypto industry. According to an executive summary shared with CryptoPotato, in 2024, the crypto industry lost over $2.361 billion to cyber threats across...Read More
Reports have emerged that hackers compromised the X account of the newly-established Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.) co-lead Vivek Ramaswamy. The attack led to a whirlwind of misinformation and market frenzy surrounding the four-month-old USUAL stablecoin project. False Claims Propel Market Activity It started with a now-deleted post initially thought to be from Ramaswamy, announcing...Read More
On December 6, a cryptocurrency user known as “LeftsideEmiri” on X shared that they had lost $300,000 after interacting with a fraudulent work meeting link. In a thread, the individual described the incident as a social engineering attack, emphasizing that they had not approved or signed any transactions. $300K Lost In Attack “Thought it would...Read More
Japanese cryptocurrency exchange DMM Bitcoin will cease operations by March 2025 following a hack that resulted in losses exceeding $300 million. This decision follows months of recovery efforts that ultimately failed to restore the platform’s viability. DMM Bitcoin to Transfer All Assets to SBI VC Trade According to a report from Nikkei Asia, the exchange...Read More
Prominent blockchain detective ZachXBT has uncovered a hacking spree targeting popular accounts on X and Instagram, which fueled a wave of pump-and-dump schemes linked to meme coins launched on Pump.fun. Celebrities such as musicians Usher and Wiz Khalifa, actor Dean Norris, as well as a Japanese public aquarium fell victim to these attacks. Hacks Targeting...Read More
Pump Science, a decentralized science (DeSci) launch platform on Solana, has disclosed a severe security breach involving one of its wallet addresses. The wallet’s private key, identified as T5j2UB…jjb8sc, was inadvertently exposed by a developer who embedded it in the platform’s codebase. The error allowed attackers to hijack the wallet, leading to the unauthorized creation...Read More
Heather Morgan, widely known by her rap persona “Razzlekhan,” has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for her role in laundering funds stolen during the 2016 Bitfinex cryptocurrency hack. Morgan pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges related to money laundering and defrauding the United States earlier this year. A Deliberate Scheme According to a CoinDesk...Read More
Ilya Lichtenstein, a 35-year-old programmer, was sentenced to five years in prison for his part in laundering Bitcoin stolen from the Bitfinex crypto exchange. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the sentence, marking a significant development in a case involving the theft of nearly 120,000 BTC, valued at $71.8 million in 2016 but worth...Read More
Police in India have reportedly taken a suspect into custody in connection with the high-profile attack on the WazirX crypto exchange. The individual’s capture comes almost four months after the incident, which resulted in the loss of more than $230 million worth of crypto, was first reported. Two Suspects Identified According to local news sources,...Read More
According to cybersecurity firm PeckShieldAlert, the cryptocurrency space faced approximately 20 hacking incidents in October 2024, with total losses reaching around $88.47 million. Five significant breaches accounted for most of the losses, with Radiant Capital experiencing the largest setback. The Top October Crypto Hacks The firm revealed that among the top five incidents in October...Read More
The advancement of computing power over the past few decades has been extraordinary. As computers become more powerful, hackers gain access to more sophisticated tools to launch attacks against crypto platforms. The threat of quantum and AI-driven hacks will soon be a major challenge for crypto entrepreneurs and developers. Web3 hacks are one of the...Read More
Reports have emerged that bad actors allegedly tied to North Korea’s Lazarus Group executed a complex cyberattack that used a fake NFT-based game to exploit a zero-day vulnerability in Google Chrome. According to the report, the vulnerability ultimately allowed the attackers to access people’s crypto wallets. Exploiting Chrome’s Zero-Day Flaw Kaspersky Labs security analysts Boris...Read More
A staggering $20 million in cryptocurrency linked to U.S. government addresses has been moved to a new wallet, raising alarms about a potential theft. The transactions originated from the government-controlled Bitfinex Hack Wallet, which housed part of the funds recovered from the 2016 attack on the Bitfinex crypto exchange. This resulted in a loss of...Read More
The person behind the recent Radiant Capital exploit has reportedly moved nearly all of the stolen crypto, valued at about $52 million, from Layer-2 networks to Ethereum. Blockchain security firm PeckShield shared the information on October 24, further dampening any hopes of recovering the funds. Attacker Almost Done Bridging Stolen Funds According to PeckShield, the...Read More
