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How 2 Wallet Errors and Phishing Attacks Cost Crypto Users $62M

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How 2 Wallet Errors and Phishing Attacks Cost Crypto Users $62M


Two crypto users lost $12.25 million and $50 million after copying incorrect wallet addresses.

In January, a crypto user lost $12.25 million by copying the wrong wallet address. In December as well, another one ended up losing $50 million in a similar way.

Together, the two incidents cost $62 million, according to the popular Web3 security solution, Scam Sniffer.

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Crypto Blunders

Signature phishing attacks also surged in January. In fact, Scam Sniffer found that $6.27 million was stolen from 4,741 victims, which is a 207% increase from December. The largest cases involved $3.02 million from SLVon and XAUt via permit/increaseAllowance, and $1.08 million from aEthLBTC via permit.

Two wallets alone accounted for 65% of all phishing losses.

Address poisoning is a scam where attackers send small transactions from wallet addresses that closely resemble real ones, hoping users copy the wrong address from their transaction history. This can lead to funds being sent directly to scammers by mistake. Signature phishing further increases the risk by tricking users into signing malicious approvals that give attackers permission to move funds later. As such, these tactics rely on social engineering and human error, and may make even experienced users vulnerable.

In November last year, a crypto holder lost over $3 million worth of PYTH tokens after mistakenly sending funds to a scammer’s wallet. The error occurred when the victim copied a fake deposit address from their transaction history.

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Blockchain analysts at Lookonchain said the attacker created a lookalike address matching the first four characters of the real wallet and sent a tiny SOL transaction to appear legitimate. The victim later transferred 7 million PYTH tokens without fully verifying the address and fell victim to an address poisoning attack. The transferred stash was worth about $3.08 million at that time.

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Coordinated Multisig Scam Attempt

Amidst the growing frequency of such attacks, the non-custodial wallet, Safe, formerly known as Gnosis Safe, also issued a warning for its users about a large-scale address poisoning and social engineering campaign targeting multisig wallets. According to the platform, attackers created thousands of lookalike Safe addresses to trick users into sending funds to the wrong destination. It disclosed that the incident was not a protocol exploit, infrastructure breach, or smart contract vulnerability.

Safe identified around 5,000 malicious addresses, which have now been flagged and removed from the Safe Wallet interface to reduce the risk of accidental fund transfers.

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Crypto World

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Crypto News & Price Indexes

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Cryptocurrencies, Business, Bitcoin Price, Markets, Cryptocurrency Exchange, Derivatives, Financial Derivatives, Bitcoin Futures, Price Analysis, Market Analysis

Bitcoin (BTC) pushed back above $71,000 on Monday, after market sentiment indicators across the crypto market dropped to new lows.

Some analysts believed that “extreme fear” and upside liquidity may help Bitcoin hold above its yearly-low at $60,000, but others warned that weak market conditions and bearish futures volume may push prices even lower.

Key takeaways:

  • The Crypto Fear & Greed Index dropped to a record low of 7, showing extreme fear in the market.

  • More than $5.5 billion in short liquidations above current prices may fuel a rebound.

  • Weak price trends and rising derivatives selling may still drag Bitcoin below $60,000.

Sentiment and liquidation suggeset $60,000 remains support

MN Capital founder Michaël van de Poppe said Bitcoin is flashing sentiment readings that have previously marked market bottoms. According to Van De Poppe, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index had dropped to 5 over the weekend (final recorded reading is 7), its lowest reading in history, while the daily relative strength index (RSI) for BTC has fallen to 15, signaling deeply oversold conditions.

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Cryptocurrencies, Business, Bitcoin Price, Markets, Cryptocurrency Exchange, Derivatives, Financial Derivatives, Bitcoin Futures, Price Analysis, Market Analysis
Bitcoin price and RSI oversold signal. Source: X

These levels were last seen during the 2018 bear market and the March 2020 COVID-19 crash. Van de Poppe said such conditions may allow BTC to exhibit recovery and avoid an immediate retest of the $60,000 level.

CoinGlass data adds to the bullish case. Bitcoin’s liquidation heatmap shows over $5.45 billion in cumulative short liquidations positioned if the price moves roughly $10,000 higher, compared with $2.4 billion in liquidations on a retest of $60,000.

This imbalance suggests that an upward move may trigger forced shorts covering, leading to a BTC rally.

Cryptocurrencies, Business, Bitcoin Price, Markets, Cryptocurrency Exchange, Derivatives, Financial Derivatives, Bitcoin Futures, Price Analysis, Market Analysis
Bitcoin exchange liquidation map. Source: CoinGlass

Related: Bitcoin circles $70K as Coinbase Premium sees first green spike in a month

BTC structural weakness keeps downside risks in focus

Data from CryptoQuant shows Bitcoin trading below its 50-day moving average near $87,000, while further below the 200-day moving average around $102,000. This wide gap reflects a corrective or “repricing” phase following the prior rally.

Cryptocurrencies, Business, Bitcoin Price, Markets, Cryptocurrency Exchange, Derivatives, Financial Derivatives, Bitcoin Futures, Price Analysis, Market Analysis
Bitcoin trend strength and structure index. Source: CryptoQuant

CryptoQuant’s Price Z-Score is also negative at -1.6, indicating BTC is trading below its statistical mean, a sign of selling pressure and trend exhaustion. Such conditions have preceded extended base-building rather than immediate rebounds.

Crypto analyst Darkfost highlighted a growing selling dominance in the derivatives markets. Monthly net taker volume has turned sharply negative at -$272 million on Sunday, while Binance’s taker buy-sell ratio has slipped below 1, signaling a strong selling pressure.

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With futures volumes outweighing spot flows at the moment, stronger spot demand is needed to trigger a bullish reaction from BTC.

Adding a longer-term caution, Bitcoin investor Jelle noted that past Bitcoin bear market bottoms formed below the 0.618 Fibonacci retracement. For the current cycle, that level sits near $57,000, with deeper downside scenarios extending toward $42,000 if history repeats.

Cryptocurrencies, Business, Bitcoin Price, Markets, Cryptocurrency Exchange, Derivatives, Financial Derivatives, Bitcoin Futures, Price Analysis, Market Analysis
Bitcoin Fibonacci retest levels. Source: Jelle/X

Related: Saylor’s Strategy buys $90M in Bitcoin as price trades below cost basis