$27M Gone in Seconds: Venus Protocol User Hit by Phishing Attack

Rumors spread fast in crypto. Yesterday, whispers of an exploit on Venus Protocol sent shockwaves across ￰1￱ first, some thought the lending protocol itself had been ￰2￱ hours of joint analysis cleared the air, Venus wasn’t hacked. Instead, a phishing attack snared a whale, draining $27 million in assets with one bad ￰3￱ wasn’t a protocol ￰4￱ was human ￰5￱ it’s a stark reminder of DeFi’s biggest weakness: one careless click can wipe out a ￰6￱ victim approved a malicious transaction from a fake ￰7￱ single signature gave the attacker’s burner wallet, 0x7fd8…202a, unlimited access to his ￰8￱ approval was granted, the attacker struck ￰9￱ vanished in ￰10￱ to Cyvers Alerts ALERT27M suspicious transaction has been detected involving a user of @VenusProtocol on the #BNBChain The user unknowingly approved a malicious transaction, granting token permissions that resulted in the loss of $27M in digital ￰11￱ stolen funds are currently held… ￰12￱ — Cyvers Alerts (@CyversAlerts) September 2, 2025 And, here’s what got drained: $19.8M vUSDT $7.15M vUSDC $146K vXRP $22K vETH Even 285 BTCB on BNB Chain Generational wealth ￰13￱ like ￰14￱ Wild Part: Venus Was Never Hacked Venus Protocol confirmed on X Update: we are in direct contact with the victim of the phishing attack, and the protocol will remain paused while we try to recover his ￰15￱ was not exploited, but we are committed to protecting our ￰16￱ the protocol resumes now, the hacker gets the user's funds. ￰0￱ — Venus Protocol (@VenusProtocol) September 2, 2025 that their contracts were ￰17￱ frontend? ￰18￱ smart contract ￰19￱ code ￰20￱ was pure social engineering.

A fake link, a trusted click, and boom, open approvals did the rest. That’s the dark side of DeFi ￰21￱ token approvals make DeFi seamless and ￰22￱ they also turn every wallet into a ticking time bomb if approvals fall into the wrong ￰23￱ Reaction: Shock and Sympathy Crypto Twitter lit up with ￰24￱ expressed sympathy for the whale; others saw it as another warning. A Venus Protocol user just lost $27M in a single click. Here’s what happened: They approved a shady transaction, unknowingly giving unlimited access to their tokens.

Attacker’s burner wallet (0x7fd8…202a) didn’t waste a second, assets got drained instantly. We’re talking… ￰25￱ — Crypto Jargon (@Crypto_Jargon) September 2, 2025 He noted how attackers patiently wait for one careless ￰26￱ phishing link likely circulated for days before the victim ￰27￱ Protocol has since paused parts of the platform while working directly with the ￰28￱ options remain slim, but efforts are ￰29￱ Phishing Keeps Winning in DeFi DeFi removes middlemen. That’s the beauty, and the ￰30￱ hold the ￰31￱ sign the transactions. There’s no customer support if things go ￰32￱ exploit this perfectly: Fake sites copy real ones ￰33￱ bots reply under official announcements with “urgent” ￰34￱ approvals mean attackers only need access ￰35￱ TradFi, banks can reverse fraudulent ￰36￱ DeFi, blockchain immutability means once assets leave your wallet, they’re ￰37￱ Learned: How to Stay Safe The Venus incident highlights simple but critical safety steps: 1.

Don’t trust random ￰38￱ type URLs manually or bookmark official sites. 2. Double-check every ￰39￱ approvals before signing, infinite token access is ￰40￱ old approvals ￰41￱ like ￰42￱ make it ￰43￱ hardware ￰44￱ add a physical confirmation step attackers can’t ￰45￱ thrive in bull markets when wallets grow ￰46￱ know greed kills caution. Don’t give them an ￰47￱ Bigger Picture: Social Engineering ￰48￱ Contracts This attack shows where DeFi risks really ￰49￱ contracts are getting ￰50￱ exploits, while still happening, are down compared to 2021-22. Humans, on the other hand, remain the weakest ￰51￱ don’t need to hack code when they can hack trust.

A fake MetaMask popup. A Twitter link promising “airdrops.” One moment of distraction can cost ￰52￱ experts argue education matters more than new tech ￰53￱ UX improvements, clearer approval warnings, and better scam detection could ￰54￱ ultimately, self-custody comes with ￰55￱ Funds Be Recovered? Venus Protocol confirmed communication with the ￰56￱ efforts are on, but realistically, funds drained to attacker-controlled wallets rarely come back. Sometimes, attackers negotiate for ransom-like returns, but there’s no sign of that ￰57￱ assets may get mixed through bridges and mixers soon, making tracing ￰58￱ Thoughts: A Wake-Up Call for DeFi Users This wasn’t just another exploit headline.

It’s a reminder that DeFi security starts with the ￰59￱ can be ￰60￱ can ￰61￱ one bad click can still drain ￰62￱ the bull market heats up, expect more phishing ￰63￱ fake ￰64￱ Twitter bots with urgent links. Don’t be the next ￰65￱ ￰66￱ ￰67￱ in DeFi, you only learn this lesson once. Disclosure: This is not trading or investment ￰68￱ do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any ￰69￱ us on Twitter @nulltxnews to stay updated with the latest Crypto, NFT, AI, Cybersecurity, Distributed Computing, and Metaverse news !