Dormant Ethereum wallet moves $4.6M, evades rapid scam attempt

dormant Ethereum wallet — An Ethereum wallet dormant since the network’s 2015 genesis transaction has moved over $4.6 million worth of ETH, successfully navigating an immediate scam attempt set up by automated bots.

The wallet, which held 2,000 ETH, became active for the first time in over 11 years. The moment the transaction was broadcast, monitoring bots detected the activity and attempted to deceive the owner by flooding the wallet’s transaction history with fraudulent, lookalike addresses.

This tactic, known as address poisoning, aims to trick users into copying a scammer’s address for a subsequent transfer. Despite this rapid response from malicious actors, the wallet owner correctly sent the entire 2,000 ETH balance to a new, secure address.

The incident highlights the persistent security risks for holders of large, dormant crypto assets, where any movement can trigger automated exploitation attempts within minutes.