Whale drained of $25.6M in aWBTC, DAI, WBTC and ETH; same wallet lost $24M to phishing in 2023
Unidentified Ethereum whale wallet
On 12 August 2026 an unidentified whale lost about $25.6M, including about $6.3M in aWBTC, $5.1M in DAI, $4.7M in WBTC and $2.6M in ETH, according to PeckShield. Analyst Specter called it a phishing attack and PeckShield called it a hack; the exact method has not been published. The attacker swapped the funds into DAI and ETH across four addresses. The same wallet lost about $24.2M through malicious token approvals in September 2023.
Why this severity: $26M reported stolen, 1 victims, still active.
- Started
- Aug 12, 2026
- Chains
- Ethereum
- Reported stolen
- $26M
- Victims
- 1
At risk
- Unidentified Ethereum whale wallet
- Ethereum wallets
What to do now
- Audit token approvals and Permit2 allowances on your main wallet and revoke anything you don't use.
- If you have been phished before, assume you are a repeat target: move funds to a brand-new wallet instead of reusing the old one.
Stay safe
Am I affected?
This hit one large wallet. The lesson applies to anyone holding big balances, including Aave positions, in a hot wallet that signs on websites.
What to do now
- Audit token approvals and Permit2 allowances on your main wallet and revoke anything you don't use.
- If you have been phished before, assume you are a repeat target: move funds to a brand-new wallet instead of reusing the old one.
How to avoid this
- Keep large holdings in a hardware wallet or multisig that never signs on unfamiliar sites.
- Treat any unexpected approve, permit or setApprovalForAll request as hostile until you have verified it.
Timeline 3
Specter described the theft as phishing; the same wallet had lost about $24.2M to malicious token approvals in September 2023.
SourcePeckShield reported the theft and said the stolen aWBTC, DAI, WBTC and ETH were swapped into DAI and ETH and split across four addresses.
SourceThe whale's wallet was drained of about $25.6M in assets.
Source
News & write-ups ›2
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