Trust Wallet launches $7M reimbursement portal after Chrome extension hack
Trust Wallet CEO Eowyn Chen announced a reimbursement program after a Dec. 24–26 Google Chrome extension compromise that intercepted seed phrases from users who unlocked the v2.68 extension. The team created an official compensation dashboard for victims to submit claims. Affected users must provide email, compromised wallet address, attacker addresses, draining transaction hashes, current reimbursement amount, and a new wallet address for payout. Residence data will be collected to support criminal proceedings. Trust Wallet warns of impersonation scams and stresses the legitimate process will never request passwords, personal data, or seed phrases. Preliminary loss estimates are around $7 million. The breach likely resulted from leaked API keys used to publish the extension update; the cause remains under investigation. Traders should note possible short-term market sensitivity around assets affected and heightened phishing risk for compromised users.
Bearish
A major wallet compromise exposing seed phrases and ~$7M in estimated losses is typically bearish in the short term. Such hacks reduce user confidence in self-custody tools and can trigger immediate sell pressure on affected assets as victims attempt to recover fiat or move funds. The incident also raises systemic concerns: attackers inserting malicious code into a widely used browser extension can prompt regulatory scrutiny and heightened caution among retail users. Historically, high-profile wallet breaches (for example, past MetaMask/extension-targeted attacks and large bridge or wallet hacks) produced short-term price weakness for tokens directly tied to affected projects and occasional broader market risk-off sentiment. In the medium-to-long term, market impact depends on the scope of losses, recovery success (reimbursements, law enforcement action), and whether custodial or wallet providers implement stronger controls. If Trust Wallet’s reimbursement and transparency mitigate panic and no large-scale liquidations follow, the effect may fade. However, persistent phishing and copycat scams could prolong cautious behavior among retail traders, tempering demand for some on-chain activity.