Billionaire Mark Cuban Loses $870,000 In Crypto Scam – Tech billionaire Mark Cuban had a rough conclusion to the week as he ventured into the world of cryptocurrency following months of inactivity, only to become a victim of a crypto scam on Friday evening. While vigilant blockchain observers flagged the fraudulent transactions, enabling him to safeguard his other assets, he still incurred losses totaling $870,000 across various cryptocurrencies.
Despite the setback, the entrepreneur successfully retained his holdings in Polygon (MATIC) cryptocurrency. However, his wallet was depleted of several assets, including stablecoins, Lido staked ETH, SuperRare tokens, and Ethereum Name Service (.ens domains) tokens. Pseudonymous on-chain sleuth @WazzCrypto was the first to notice that something was up.
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“Did Mark Cuban’s wallet just get drained?” he asked on Twitter, claiming that the tech mogul’s wallet had been inactive for 160 days when funds suddenly began moving. Wazz posted screenshots of crypto wallets linked to Cuban showing several Ethereum (ETH) transactions, claiming they showcased “very ‘sus’ behavior.”
Later posts suggested that the entrepreneur was alerted of the alleged hack–which was confirmed by media outlet DL News–and moved his $2 million worth of USDC onto Coinbase. “End of an era,” posted Wazz. DL News reported that they contacted Cuban about the hack, to which he explained, “Someone got me for 5 ETH.”
“They must have been watching,” Cuban told the news outlet, explaining that he had jumped on MetaMask “for the first time in months.” While the proprietor of the Dallas Mavericks initially hinted at the possibility of the hack being a result of someone monitoring his online behavior, it is more probable that he inadvertently downloaded a counterfeit and deceptive version of the widely-used browser-based MetaMask cryptocurrency wallet.
Cuban disclosed to DL News that he had conducted a search for information about Circle, a company currently in the midst of substantial growth, and mistakenly downloaded what he believed to be MetaMask. However, upon further inspection, he found that the application was compromised.
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As per DL News, the breach occurred when Cuban attempted to clean up his account using his mobile phone. Cuban has been an enthusiastic supporter of cryptocurrencies and has championed Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and blockchain technology in previous discussions with Decrypt. The recent hack serves as validation for something Cuban alluded to during the interview, which could have potentially preserved a significant portion of his wealth.