Behind the 50 million USDT phishing case: Why should we not truncate the displayed wallet address

2025-12-21 12:56:11

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[Chain News] Recently, a serious phishing incident occurred in the Ethereum ecosystem—50 million USDT was trapped just like that. The incident review is quite heartbreaking: the scammers generated an address with the first and last three digits being completely identical, and the victims copied and pasted the transfer without careful inspection, ultimately sending the money to the fraudulent account.

The issues exposed behind this are not small. Currently, many wallets and blockchain explorers provide address truncation features, replacing the middle part with ellipses (for example, 0xbaf4b1aF…B6495F8b5), which looks neat but is actually a security risk. Why? Because phishing addresses that have the same beginning and end but different middle parts can easily deceive users.

There have been calls in the ecosystem to immediately stop this truncation practice; addresses must be displayed in full. Not only is there a problem with address display, but some UI design options in wallets and browsers also have security vulnerabilities. The good news is that these can all be fixed. Instead of waiting for an incident to occur, it is better to take action now.

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AlphaBrain

· 23h ago

Wow... If the start and end are the same, you can scam 50 million. My goodness, how careless can you be? --- The operation of truncating addresses is really brilliant; it seems convenient but actually sets a trap for yourself. --- Wait, the wallet providers all know there are risks but still don't change? I can't understand this logic. --- I suggest just disabling the truncation feature directly. Security > aesthetics, what's there to fuss over? --- 50 million just gone like that... I was still planning to get in this year. --- I've been saying that UI design should prioritize security. Now it's too late, we've fallen into a trap. --- It's so simple to display the full address, why has it become an issue? --- Scammers are really good at playing tricks. The trick of making the start and end the same is indeed damaging, but it's also the wallet's fault for being too unlucky.

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ForkMaster

· 12-24 04:32

50 million just disappeared like that, it's really not worth it, the truncation address trick is really amazing. --- I wonder how the project party thought when they designed this feature, aiming for simplicity ended up digging a trap. --- I used to tell my three kids, on-chain this set of logic requires carefulness, one mistake can cost everything. --- This truncation display thing should have been eliminated a long time ago, insisting on making it so flashy, where's the safety awareness? --- The wallet party really needs to reflect on this, users' money is not a small matter. --- Those from the white hat background understand that detail vulnerabilities can be deadly, this time it's a living textbook case.

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MEVHunterNoLoss

· 12-21 13:26

The design of this truncated address is really a trap, it should have been changed long ago. --- 50 million just disappeared like that... still because the address couldn't be recognized by the naked eye, wallets need to be more mindful. --- Changing the middle while keeping the beginning and end the same, this eyewash is very old-fashioned, why are there still so many people falling for it? --- It's such a simple thing to fully display the address, why wait until something goes wrong to realize it? --- The UI design is to blame, but users also don't pay attention when they copy and paste, both sides have a problem. --- The ecosystem needs such bloody lessons to grow, but unfortunately, it's all blood. --- This truncated address thing is just a pseudo-demand, there's nothing good about it.

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LiquidatorFlash

· 12-21 13:15

The 50 million threshold has been triggered... this is the trouble caused by truncation. The human brain's ability to recognize beginnings and ends is indeed too fragile, the security debt of UI design needs to be cleared. This risk control mechanism has a serious flaw, the wallet party must change it. It should have been fully displayed long ago, the ellipsis is playing with fire. If the basic defense like address verification can't be maintained, what can we say about smart contracts security?

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WhaleStalker

· 12-21 13:13

The trick of truncating the Address is really amazing; you can't tell the difference at a glance. Damn, 50 million just disappeared like that? I have to keep an eye on the transfer with a magnifying glass from now on. If the Address is not displayed completely, how high would the phishing success rate be... It really needs to be changed.

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LightningLady

· 12-21 13:05

Damn, using such a basic design flaw in truncation display, no wonder it gets phished. --- Just because the beginning and end are the same, you're willing to transfer money? How careless can one be? --- Seriously, the ellipsis thing needs to be cut out quickly; in my opinion, it should be fully displayed. --- 50 million just disappeared like that; the Wallet has to take the blame. --- So, details determine life and death; copying addresses can't be taken lightly. --- That said, user education also needs to keep up; we can't just leave it all to the Wallet. --- This type of attack was actually predicted a long time ago; it's just that no one took it seriously. --- The UI design bears a lot of blame; the product manager is probably going to get scolded to death.

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