According to blockchain security firm CertiK, a crypto wallet lost $69.3 million worth of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) in an apparent address poisoning attack.
Address poisoning usually involves a scammer sending a wallet a small amount of crypto via an address designed to resemble that of the wallet, according to an explanation from Ledger, a digital asset wallet provider.
The trick aims to trick wallet holders into accidentally copying the scammer’s address from their transaction history and having money sent to that wallet instead.
In this case CertiK notes that a scammer faked a transfer of 0.05 Ethereum (ETH), causing the victim to send 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 remaining within the Ethereum ecosystem. The 16th-ranked crypto asset by market cap is trading at $62,953 at the time of writing and is up almost 7% in the past 24 hours.
The blockchain security company Peckshield notes that the scammer exchanged the stolen WBTC for 23,000 ETH and then transferred it.
Ethereum is trading at $3,116 at the time of writing. The second-ranked crypto asset by market capitalization is up more than 4% in the past 24 hours.
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Generated image: Midjourney