According to a report from blockchain security company Cyvers Alert, an unidentified individual in the cryptocurrency trading industry suffered a loss of 1,155 Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) valued at $70.5 million due to an attack known as address poisoning.

Further, Meir Dolev, CTO and founder of Cyvers, the loss caused by an address-poisoning scam was likely the most significant value that has been misplaced. He shared this information in a tweet on his Twitter account.

Combating Address Poisoning

Address poisoning is a deceptive strategy used by malicious actors to take advantage of cryptocurrency traders. This deceitful practice commonly traps unsuspecting individuals by tricking them into sending their digital assets to fraudulent addresses controlled by scam artists.

The method used involves producing addresses that closely resemble the target's, using the same initial and final characters to trick unsuspecting individuals.

Afterwards, the hackers proceed to initiate a crypto transfer using a newly created matching address, which then leads to the contamination of the transaction history. Due to their lack of knowledge, the victim mistakenly copies the compromised address from the transaction log instead of checking their own records, resulting in the funds being sent to the hacker's wallet.

It is worth noting that this type of assault has become quite common in the field, as evidenced by Changpeng Zhao, the ex-chief executive officer of Binance, who brought attention to a similar occurrence last year. 

In a tweet, he stated that scammers have become adept at creating addresses that begin and end with the same letters, which is a common practice for individuals conducting cryptocurrency transfers. As a matter of fact, numerous wallets conceal the middle portion of the address with '…' in order to improve the appearance of the user interface.