$50M USDT (Tether stablecoin) address poisoning victim demands 98% return, offers $1M bounty

$50M USDT (Tether stablecoin) address poisoning victim demands 98% return, offers $1M bounty

The victim lost $50M in an address poisoning scam and demands 98% restitution within 48 hours, offering $1M bounty while threatening legal action if funds are not returned.

ETH
USDT

Fact Check
The assessment that the statement is 'likely_true' is based on strong, consistent, and corroborating evidence from multiple reputable sources within the cryptocurrency domain. The highest-authority source, The Block, directly confirms every detail of the claim: a $50 million loss from an address poisoning attack (a form of phishing), an on-chain message from the victim, a $1 million bounty offer, and the specific condition for the return of 98% of the funds. This primary account is independently verified by news reports from two different crypto exchanges, Phemex and Bitget, which also confirm the core facts. Furthermore, a social media post from the news outlet Cryptopolitan quotes the victim's offer, explicitly mentioning the 98% return and the $1 million bounty. The multiple low-authority Paybis sources, while not primary evidence, demonstrate the story's wide syndication and further corroborate the details. There is no conflicting evidence among the provided sources; the only irrelevant source was correctly identified as not containing information on this specific incident. The consistency across all relevant, independent reports provides a high degree of confidence in the statement's accuracy.
Summary

A crypto user lost $50 million in USDT after falling victim to an address poisoning scam, where the attacker created a lookalike wallet address and sent a small dust transaction to the victim’s history, leading to a misdirected transfer of $49,999,950 USDT. Blockchain data shows the stolen funds were swapped for ETH and moved across multiple wallets, some interacting with Tornado Cash to obscure traces. The victim posted an onchain message demanding 98% of the assets be returned within 48 hours, offering a $1 million white-hat bounty and warning of legal escalation and criminal prosecution if unpaid.

Terms & Concepts
  • Address poisoning: A scam tactic where attackers send small transactions from lookalike wallet addresses to alter a victim’s transaction history and trick them into copying the wrong address.
  • Dust transaction: A very small cryptocurrency transaction sent to a wallet, often used in scams to manipulate wallet histories without significant cost.
  • Tornado Cash: A decentralized cryptocurrency mixer that obscures transaction trails by pooling funds from multiple users before redistribution.