Historic $282M Crypto Theft Highlights Social Engineering Risks

[ed]

A crypto holder lost more than $282 million in one of the largest social engineering attacks ever recorded, according to blockchain investigator ZachXBT. The theft occurred on Jan. 10, 2026, after the victim was tricked into revealing their seed phrase linked to a hardware wallet, giving the attacker full control over the funds.

In total, the attacker drained 1,459 Bitcoin and 2.05 million Litecoin, rapidly moving assets across chains and converting much of the value into Monero. The scale and speed of the operation underline how human error—not protocol failure—remains one of crypto’s biggest vulnerabilities.

[tradelikepro]

reminder that the weakest link in crypto is still just being human