Hundreds of EVM Wallets Drained in Devastating ’Wide-Net’ Crypto Exploit

Another day, another clever heist—only this time, the attacker didn't pick a lock. They blew open the vault door for hundreds of wallets at once.

The Mechanics of a Mass Drain

Forget targeted phishing. This exploit cast a wide net, leveraging a systemic vulnerability within the EVM ecosystem to automate the theft. It didn't discriminate between the cautious newbie and the seasoned degen; if your wallet was exposed, it was liquidated. The method remains a stark lesson in infrastructure risk—sometimes the threat isn't your seed phrase, but the plumbing your assets sit on.

Security Theater vs. Real Safeguards

The incident cuts through the industry's comfort blanket of 'self-custody' rhetoric. Holding your own keys means you're also the sole security guard, alarm system, and incident response team. While centralized exchanges get flak for being 'honeypots,' their institutional-grade security frameworks (think FSA-level compliance) suddenly look less like oppression and more like a necessary moat. A cynical take? In traditional finance, losing your life savings to a digital pickpocket gets you a fraud investigation. In crypto, it gets you a 'sorry, funds are safu' meme and a link to a poorly-written post-mortem blog.

The Bullish Paradox

Here's the twisted part for us crypto optimists: these black-swan events don't kill the market—they force it to evolve. Every major exploit hardens the ecosystem, spurring innovation in smart contract auditing, decentralized insurance, and behavioral security. The hundreds of wallets lost today will fund the security startups that protect millions tomorrow. The path to a trillion-dollar decentralized future is paved with brutal, expensive lessons. The tech adapts, the weak hands fold, and the core value proposition—permissionless, borderless, programmable value—only gets stronger. Just maybe keep your main bag on a hardware wallet, yeah?

Hackless Warns Automated Attack Behind EVM Wallet Drains

Cybersecurity firm Hackless echoed that assessment, warning users that the activity appears automated and urging immediate steps such as revoking smart contract approvals and closely monitoring wallet activity.

Early clues indicate a phishing vector may have played a role. Cybersecurity researcher Vladimir S. said a spoofed email posing as legitimate communication from MetaMask could have lured users into granting approvals or signing malicious transactions.

Screenshots shared on social media showed an email closely mimicking official branding, a tactic designed to lower suspicion and accelerate compromise.

Possible start of a large-scale hack.

According to @zachxbt, hundreds of wallets across multiple EVM chains are currently being drained in small amounts (under $2k per victim).
The root cause is still unknown.
~$107,000 stolen so far – and the number is still rising.

Suspicious… pic.twitter.com/ZLkZ3RM4zG

The wallet drain may also be linked to a separate incident involving Trust Wallet, which reported a $7 million hack on Christmas Day.

That breach compromised roughly 2,596 wallets and was later tied to a supply-chain attack known as “Sha1-Hulud,” which targeted npm packages widely used by crypto developers.

Trust Wallet’s incident report said leaked developer secrets from GitHub allowed an attacker to modify the wallet’s browser extension and upload a malicious version to the Chrome Web Store.

Industry figures have suggested insider access could have been a factor in the Trust Wallet case.

Blockchain adviser Anndy Lian called the circumstances “not natural,” while Binance co-founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao said the attack likely required DEEP knowledge of the wallet’s source code.

Binance, which owns Trust Wallet, said the mobile app was unaffected and committed to reimbursing impacted users.

Whether the two incidents are directly connected remains unconfirmed. Still, the overlap in tactics,browser extensions, phishing, and approval abuse, shows a familiar risk pattern for EVM users.

Crypto Hack Losses Fell 60% in December

As reported, crypto-related losses from hacks and cybersecurity exploits fell sharply in December, dropping 60% month-on-month to about $76 million.

The figure marks a notable decline from November’s $194.2 million, offering a rare pause after months of elevated attack activity across the sector.

PeckShield said December saw 26 major crypto exploits, with a handful of incidents accounting for the bulk of losses. The largest involved a single user who lost $50 million in an address poisoning scam.

In such attacks, threat actors send small transactions from wallet addresses that closely resemble legitimate ones, hoping victims will mistakenly copy or select the fraudulent address during a transfer.

Last month, US prosecutors have charged a 23-year-old Brooklyn resident, Ronald Spektor, with stealing roughly $16 million in cryptocurrency from around 100 Coinbase users through an alleged phishing and social engineering scheme.