Crypto whale loses $35M on Blast Network in phishing attack

• A crypto whale has lost $35M in fwDETH on Blast network due to phishing permit attack.
• The attacker drained 15,079 fwDETH, causing price drop from $2,000 to $100.
• The incident has raised security concerns in DeFi, impacting Blast network scrutiny.

A crypto whale recently lost approximately $35 million worth of Few Wrapped Duo ETH (fwDETH) tokens in a major phishing attack on the Blast network.

The attack, first flagged by Scam Sniffer and later confirmed by security firms PeckShield and BlockSec, occurred after the victim unknowingly signed a fraudulent “permit” signature, which allowed the attacker to siphon funds from their wallet.

What is Few Wrapped Duo ETH (fwDETH)?

Few Wrapped Duo ETH, or fwDETH, is a wrapped version of Duo ETH (DETH), a derivative of Ethereum (ETH) issued by Duo, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol operating on the Blast network.

The stolen tokens, 15,079 fwDETH in total, represent a significant loss for the whale, whose wallet address is identified as 0xEab2E…a393.

How was the phishing attack on Blast orchestrated?

Security experts noted that the phishing attack was executed by tricking the whale into signing an offline “permit” message, which is commonly used in DeFi transactions to authorize token transfers without directly using private keys.

According to Yajin (Andy) Zhou, co-founder of BlockSec, the signed permit message was then exploited by the attacker to drain the fwDETH tokens from the victim’s account.

This incident had immediate consequences not just for the whale but also for the price of DETH.

Within hours of the attack, the price of DETH plummeted by over 38%, dropping from $3,482 to $2,150 as the attacker liquidated the stolen tokens.

The price of fwDETH also dropped by over 90% from $2,000 to $100. While the token price later stabilized and partially recovered to $1,000, the sharp decline caused shockwaves across the Blast network and the broader crypto community.

This phishing attack underscores the persistent security risks facing crypto investors, especially those holding large volumes of digital assets.

The Blast network and associated protocols may now face heightened scrutiny as a result of the incident.