Hackers Stole 50 Million USDT in Rare Wallet Exploit

A user lost $50 million in USDt after accidentally sending it to a scam wallet. The mistake shows how small errors can lead to huge losses in cryptocurrency. Scammers often rely on subtle tricks, and in this case, the error came from copying the wrong address.

Copy-Paste Error Leads To Huge Loss

According to Cointelegraph, the user copied a wallet address from their transaction history and sent nearly $50 million USDt to a scammer. 

Onchain investigators at Web3 Antivirus reported that the victim initially tested a small transaction to the correct wallet. Minutes later, the full transfer went to the wrong address.

The scam involved address poisoning. This is when attackers send tiny amounts to a wallet so that a look-alike address appears in a user’s history. 

When users copy an address later, they may pick the fake one by mistake. The difference between the real address and the fake was small. Security researcher Cos said the first three and last four characters were the same, making it easy to be deceived.

The victim’s wallet had been active for about two years and mainly handled USDt. The funds had recently been withdrawn from Binance, showing that the wallet was in use before the loss.

Attackers Move Stolen Funds Quickly

After receiving the USDt, the attackers converted it into Ether and moved the money into several wallets. Some of the funds were sent into Tornado Cash, a service that hides transactions. This step makes it harder to track the stolen money.

Experts noted that scams like this do not hack systems directly. Instead, they take advantage of human mistakes. Even users with experience can fall for address poisoning if they do not check addresses carefully.

In related news, Hackers hijacked Binance co-CEO Yi He’s WeChat account to promote a fake memecoin, earning around $55,000 from a pump-and-dump scam.

Crypto Hacks Remain High In 2025

It is worth mentioning that the $50 million USDt loss is part of a bigger trend in 2025. Crypto-related hacks this year reached $3.4 billion, the highest total since 2022. 

Only three incidents caused most of the losses, accounting for 69% of the total. The largest theft was $1.4 billion from the Bybit exchange.

While big exchange hacks get attention, individual mistakes can be just as costly. The USDt incident shows that one simple copy-paste error can wipe out millions. 

Analysts advise extra caution when sending funds and double-checking wallet addresses before transferring.