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Crypto Trader Loses $50M in USDT After Falling for Address Poisoning Scam A crypto trader has reportedly lost around $50 million in $USDT after falling victim to an address poisoning scam — a tactic where attackers send small transactions using wallet addresses that closely resemble legitimate ones, hoping victims copy the wrong address from their transaction history. In this case, the attacker’s address appeared similar to a previously used wallet. When the trader attempted a large transfer, the funds were mistakenly sent to the spoofed address instead. Once confirmed on-chain, the funds were quickly moved across multiple wallets, making recovery extremely difficult. This incident highlights how even experienced users can be caught off guard, especially during high-value transfers. It also reinforces the importance of manually verifying wallet addresses and not relying solely on copied transaction history. Question: Do you think wallet UX needs stronger protections against address poisoning, or is this purely a user-responsibility issue? Source: Original reporting by Bitcoin.com News

Tether is pushing beyond its role as a backend stablecoin issuer and moving directly to the end user. On December 20, Paolo Ardoino, the firms CEO, disclosed that he was hiring a Lead Software Engineer to build a self-custodial mobile wallet that integrates the companys massive liquidity with its nascent artificial intelligence division. Tethers Planned Mobile Crypto Wallet The recruitment posting offers the most specific look yet at Tethers consumer strategy. Ardoino envisions a 100% self-custodial mobile application designed to serve as a fortress for a strict asset basket. Unlike general-purpose wallets that support thousands of speculative tokens, Tethers product will support only four assets. These include Bitcoin (BTC) via the Lightning Network, Tether (USDT), the gold-pegged XAUT, and USAT, the firms new US-compliant stablecoin. Imagine a wallet that supports only BTC (also via LN), USDT, USAT, XAUT.And will have local private AI integration via QVAC. https://t.co/BCyqjob1Sh Paolo Ardoino 🤖 (@paoloardoino) December 20, 2025 This restricted asset list signals a clear strategic intent. Tether is building a hard money payment rail, ignoring the broader decentralized finance (DeFi) casino in favor of pure payments and store-of-value assets. Meanwhile, the announcement confirms the wallet will be powered by two proprietary technologies, including the Wallet Development Kit (WDK) and QVAC. While WDK handles the non-custodial financial architecture, the integration of QVAC (Tethers local AI computing platform) is the key differentiator. Ardoino detailed a vision in which the wallet features a local private AI integration, allowing users to run advanced automated tasks directly on their devices. By processing data locally with QVAC rather than routing it to the cloud, Tether aims to deliver the functionality of an AI-powered financial assistant. The approach is designed to avoid the privacy trade-offs typically associated with Big Tech platforms. Moreover, the move underscores Tethers shift from an infrastructure provider to a consumer-facing tech giant. It builds on last weeks launch of PearPass, a peer-to-peer password manager designed to eliminate reliance on cloud storage. Indeed, these product lines demonstrate that the company is aggressively verticalizing its stack. Tether would control the wallet interface, the underlying stablecoins USDT and USAT, the security layer via PearPass, and the intelligence stack via QVAC. This structure reduces reliance on third-party platforms and strengthens the companys operational autonomy. Read the article at BeInCrypto

A cryptocurrency trader lost nearly $50 million in USDT to an address poisoning scam on December 20, 2025. The victim transferred 49,999,950 USDT to a fraudulent address copied from transaction history. The entire theft happened in under one hour. SlowMist monitoring reported that the stolen funds were rapidly converted to Ethereum, dispersed across multiple wallets, and partially laundered through Tornado Cash. The victim posted an on-chain message demanding return of 98% of the stolen funds within 48 hours. The victim also offered the attacker $1 million as a white-hat bounty while threatening legal and international law enforcement action. Crypto attack exploited transaction history The victim withdrew $50 million from Binance shortly before the attack occurred. Following standard security practices, the user first sent a small test transaction of 50 USDT to the intended recipient address. Minutes later, the attacker had already injected a fraudulent address into the victim’s transaction history through a dust transaction of 0.005 USDT. How to lose $50M in under an hour. This is one of the largest on-chain scam losses we’ve seen recently.A single victim lost $50M in $USDT to an address poisoning scam. The funds had arrived less than 1h earlier.The user first sent a small test tx to the correct address. Mins… pic.twitter.com/Umsr8oTcXC— Web3 Antivirus (@web3_antivirus) December 19, 2025 When the victim returned to send the full amount, they copied what appeared to be their destination address from recent transactions. The spoofed address matched the legitimate one in the first three and last four characters. The wallet had been active on-chain for approximately two years and was mainly used for USDT transfers. On-chain analysis suggests attackers were monitoring whale wallet movements, waiting for large transfers to execute the scam. Address poisoning reaches $3.4 billion in 2025 losses The $50 million theft is a fraction of 2025’s total address poisoning damage. The year has seen $3.4 billion in confirmed losses from address poisoning attacks across the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Over 158,000 personal wallets have been compromised, affecting 80,000 unique victims. September 2025 alone documented 32,290 suspicious poisoning events across multiple blockchain networks, impacting 6,516 unique victims. Researchers have tracked over 270 million poisoning attempts across Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain. Confirmed losses specifically attributed to address poisoning techniques exceed $83.8 million beyond the headline incidents. Scammers monitor blockchain activity for high-value transfers, then immediately inject poisoned addresses that appear in victims’ transaction histories at opportune moments.

COINOTAG News reported on December 21 that the Ethereum Community Foundation urged an end to truncating wallet addresses on Platform X, saying full addresses reduce risk and improve crypto security amid escalating USDT phishing concerns. According to the report, the phisher crafted an address sharing the first and last three digits, sending 0.005 USDT to the victim. The attacker then redirected 50 million USDT to a near-identical address, swapped to DAI to avoid freezing, and moved into ETH before washing via Tornado Cash. The episode underscores the risk of UI truncation and urges wallets and explorers to enable full address visibility, preserving verification and reducing phishing risk while maintaining usability. Going forward, readers should verify recipient addresses via trusted on-chain confirmations and avoid copied strings. Industry players must strengthen anti-phishing controls and emphasize transaction verification and address transparency.

BlockBeats News, December 21st, in response to the "50 Million USDT Phishing Attack" incident, the Ethereum Community Foundation posted on Platform X, calling for an end to the practice of truncating addresses with ellipsis (e.g., 0xbaf4b1aF...B6495F8b5). Address information needs to be fully displayed, as hiding the middle part of the address can create unnecessary risks. Currently, some wallets and blockchain explorers provide UI options that also have security issues, which can actually be resolved. Previously reported, the phisher generated an address with the first and last 3 digits the same to transfer 0.005 USDT to the victim's address. Then, when the whale officially transferred the funds or directly copied the address from the most recent transaction record, the entire 50 million USDT was transferred to a similar address generated by the phisher. The phisher quickly exchanged this 50 million USDT for DAI (to prevent freezing), then bought all of it into 16,624 ETH. Subsequently, these ETH were all washed away through Tornado.