Shiba Inu Warns of Address-Poisoning Scam; Safe Wallet Removes ~5,000 Fake Addresses
Shiba Inu developers alerted users to a coordinated address-poisoning and social‑engineering campaign targeting Safe Wallet multisig users. Attackers generated roughly 5,000 lookalike addresses that exploit common truncated address views (identical prefixes and suffixes) to trick users into sending funds to spoofed destinations. Safe Labs and SafeShield identified and removed the malicious addresses from the Safe Wallet interface to reduce accidental interactions. The incident did not involve a protocol exploit, smart‑contract vulnerability, or infrastructure breach; instead it relied on user habits such as copying truncated addresses or using transaction history. A high‑loss example cited involved a user losing about $50 million after copying an address later spoofed with identical starting and ending characters. The Shiba Inu team advised verifying full recipient addresses outside the wallet UI, using address books or allow lists for frequent payees, and sending small test transfers before large transactions. Traders should treat this as an operational security risk: avoid relying on truncated addresses, review multisig workflows, and favour allow lists and hardware signing procedures to prevent costly mistakes.
Neutral
This incident is primarily an operational security issue rather than a technical vulnerability in Shiba Inu or Safe Wallet. Because the exploit involved spoofed addresses and user error—not a protocol exploit or contract bug—it is unlikely to materially change Shiba Inu’s long‑term fundamentals or tokenomics. Short term, the news can increase caution among holders and reduce on‑chain activity (slower transactions, more small test transfers), which could slightly dampen trading volume. It may also prompt some short‑term sell pressure from users who fear theft, but widespread panic is unlikely because the teams and security partners quickly removed malicious addresses and issued clear mitigation steps. Overall price impact on SHIB should be limited and temporary; the greater effect is on user behaviour and security practices (increased use of address books, allow lists, hardware wallets, and verification steps), which improves long‑term resilience but does not create sustained bullish or bearish pressure on the token itself.