Billionaire entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, confirmed to the media that he fell victim to a crypto scam late last Friday, resulting in a staggering loss of approximately $870,000.
The suspicious activities within a wallet, designated as “Mark Cuban 2” on the blockchain explorer EtherScan, were initially detected by the pseudonymous crypto investigator known as WazzCrypto.
Cuban remained oblivious to the wallet’s movements until contacted by the media, where he candidly admitted, “Someone got me for 5 eth.” He further revealed, “I went on MetaMask for the first time in months. They must have been watching.”
Cuban’s financial losses exceeded the initial 5 Ether loss, which was valued at approximately $9,000 at the current market rates. In total, he was dealt a hefty blow across ten different cryptocurrencies. Noteworthy assets that fell victim to the hack encompassed an array of stablecoins, as well as various tokens such as Lido staked Ether, SuperRare, and Ethereum Name Service.
Regarding the MetaMask incident, Cuban expressed his suspicions, stating, “I’m pretty sure I downloaded a version of MetaMask with some shady components.” He clarified that he had initially searched for Circle on Google, not MetaMask, and the intrusion occurred when he accessed his account on his mobile device.
“MetaMask crashed a couple of times. I simply gave up and then received your (Media) email. Consequently, I secured my NFTs on OpenSea and transferred all my Polygon assets into the account,” Cuban explained.
It’s worth noting that malevolent actors often create counterfeit MetaMask extensions or applications, deceiving users into divulging their private keys or seed phrases. Once access is gained, these malicious parties can swiftly drain the victim’s cryptocurrency holdings.
Cuban asserted, “Since I was solely operating with the compromised account, none of my other accounts were compromised.” Fortunately, he managed to safeguard his remaining assets by transferring them to Coinbase using the “dongle” authentication method employed by Coinbase.
Mark Cuban, known for his active involvement in DeFi as an investor, has not been immune to challenges within the crypto space.
During the 2021 bull market, he served as a liquidity provider for Iron Finance’s TITAN stablecoin. However, in June 2021, TITAN’s value plummeted to zero during a “bank run,” resulting in the complete loss of Cuban’s holdings. Reflecting on this, he remarked, “I got hit like everyone else. Live and learn.”
This month, amid a bear market, the crypto world has witnessed a string of high-profile scams and hacks. Notably, Stake.com, a prominent online crypto casino, suffered a loss of $41 million from its platform last week, while CoinEx was reportedly hacked for over $50 million on a Wednesday.
Even Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s X account fell victim to a breach the previous Saturday, with the hacker making off with approximately $700,000 by sharing a post containing a phishing link.
It’s imperative to remember that blockchain transactions are inherently irreversible. Once a transaction is confirmed and added to the blockchain ledger, it becomes an immutable record that cannot be modified or deleted.
