A $50 test transfer was followed by a $50M mistake
It started with a small test transfer
A victim sent $50 to a familiar address
Everything looked correct
Nothing appeared wrong
This is not a protocol failure
This is not a smart contract exploit
This is about how one transaction changed the outcome
The setup
Shortly after the test
A 0005 USDC dust payment arrived
The sender address looked almost identical
Same prefix
Same ending characters
The wallet UI placed it next to the original address
No warnings appeared
The mistake
The victim copied the address from the dust payment
Not the original destination
The second transaction followed
The full balance was sent
$49999950 moved in a single transfer
The address was wrong
But it looked right
What actually happened
This pattern matches address poisoning behavior
Attackers send small dust transfers
They rely on human pattern recognition
They wait for copy paste behavior
Nothing was hacked
No keys were compromised
The chain did exactly what it was told to do
Why this keeps working
Wallets optimize for speed
Humans optimize for familiarity
Visual similarity replaces verification
History replaces confirmation
The test transfer created confidence
The dust transfer exploited it
What remains unresolved
No exploit was triggered
No rule was broken
The funds moved correctly
Just not where the victim intended
How many similar cases go unnoticed
And how many safeguards still rely on human attention alone.
$USDC $XRP
It started with a small test transfer
A victim sent $50 to a familiar address
Everything looked correct
Nothing appeared wrong
This is not a protocol failure
This is not a smart contract exploit
This is about how one transaction changed the outcome
The setup
Shortly after the test
A 0005 USDC dust payment arrived
The sender address looked almost identical
Same prefix
Same ending characters
The wallet UI placed it next to the original address
No warnings appeared
The mistake
The victim copied the address from the dust payment
Not the original destination
The second transaction followed
The full balance was sent
$49999950 moved in a single transfer
The address was wrong
But it looked right
What actually happened
This pattern matches address poisoning behavior
Attackers send small dust transfers
They rely on human pattern recognition
They wait for copy paste behavior
Nothing was hacked
No keys were compromised
The chain did exactly what it was told to do
Why this keeps working
Wallets optimize for speed
Humans optimize for familiarity
Visual similarity replaces verification
History replaces confirmation
The test transfer created confidence
The dust transfer exploited it
What remains unresolved
No exploit was triggered
No rule was broken
The funds moved correctly
Just not where the victim intended
How many similar cases go unnoticed
And how many safeguards still rely on human attention alone.
$USDC $XRP
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