Trader Loses $12.25M in ETH to Address-Poisoning Scam — Wallet Copy-Paste Risk Grows
An address-poisoning scam on Ethereum resulted in a trader losing 4,556 ETH (about $12.25 million), security firm Scam Sniffer reports. Attackers create vanity addresses that closely mimic the first and last characters of legitimate wallets, then inject tiny or zero-value transactions so the fake address appears in victims’ recent transaction history. The victim copied the poisoned address (0x6d9052b2DF589De00324127fe2707eb34e592e48) instead of the intended contact (0x6D90CC8Ce83B6D0ACf634ED45d4bCc37eDdD2E48), sending funds irreversibly. Scam Sniffer and other firms say there are over one million poisoning attempts daily on Ethereum; January 2026 saw a record 2.8 million daily transactions, which analysts partly attribute to scam activity. This episode follows a December 2025 case where a trader lost nearly $50 million after a poisoning script intercepted a 50 USDT test transfer. Recent large exploits (Saga EVM ~$7M, Truebit ~$26.6M) and ransomware demands against custodial services show fraud is becoming industrial-scale. Chainalysis reported impersonation scams, including address poisoning, rose 1,400% year-on-year in 2025. For traders: do not copy addresses from transaction histories; instead use verified address books, QR codes, wallet whitelists or address-book whitelisting and always verify full addresses before large transfers. Keywords: address poisoning, Ethereum, wallet security, crypto scams, address-book whitelisting.
Bearish
This incident and the broader trend of address-poisoning and impersonation scams increase counterparty and operational risk for Ethereum users. Large irreversible losses and reports of millions of daily poisoning attempts undermine confidence in on-chain transfers, especially among retail and non-custodial users who may avoid or delay high-value activity. Short term: increased selling pressure or reduced willingness to transact on-chain could add downward pressure on ETH demand, particularly for over-the-counter or retail flows. Long term: while scams raise friction, they do not directly diminish Ethereum’s protocol utility; institutional adoption of safer custody, better wallet UX (address books, QR whitelists), and improved on-chain anti-phishing tools should mitigate risk over time. Overall, the immediate market reaction is likely negative for ETH price sentiment, but structural fixes and awareness can neutralize long-term effects.