Today in crypto: A user lost nearly $50 million in USDt after copying a poisoned wallet address from transaction history, a veteran trader anticipates that the US Clarity Act won’t move Bitcoin’s price. Meanwhile, pro-crypto US Sen. Cynthia Lummis said she plans to leave Congress in 2027.
How a single copy-paste mistake cost a user $50M in USDt
A single transaction error led to one of the largest onchain losses seen this year, after a user mistakenly sent nearly $50 million in USDt to a scam address in a classic address poisoning attack.
According to onchain investigator Web3 Antivirus, the victim lost 49,999,950 USDt (USDT) after copying a malicious wallet address from their transaction history.
Address poisoning scams rely on look-alike wallet addresses being inserted into a victim’s transaction history via small transfers. When victims later copy an address from their transaction history, they may unknowingly select the scammer’s lookalike address instead of the intended recipient.
Onchain data shows the victim initially sent a small test transaction to the correct address. Minutes later, however, the full $50 million transfer was sent to the poisoned address.
US Clarity Act unlikely to be ‘world-shaking’ for Bitcoin’s price: Brandt
Veteran trader Peter Brandt said the potential passage of the US Clarity Act is unlikely to have a significant impact on Bitcoin’s price, after indications that it could pass Congress as soon as January.
“Is it a world-shaking macro development? Nope. Needed for sure, but not something that should redefine value,” Brandt told Cointelegraph on Friday. “Having an asset regulated, particularly an asset for which die-hard investors never wanted to be regulated, is not an earth-shattering event,” he added.
His comments came after White House crypto and AI czar David Sacks said on Thursday, ”We are closer than ever to passing the landmark crypto market structure legislation.”
“We look forward to finishing the job in January,” Sacks said.
Pro-crypto US Senator Lummis won’t seek reelection in 2026
Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis, one of the most outspoken advocates for digital assets in the current session of the US Congress, will leave office in 2027.
In a Friday X post, Lummis announced that she would not seek reelection to the Senate in 2026. She was elected to a six-year term and assumed office in January 2021, quickly establishing herself as a blockchain and Bitcoin-focused politician who later aligned with US President Donald Trump’s crypto agenda.
“Deciding not to run for reelection does represent a change of heart for me, but in the difficult, exhausting session weeks this fall I’ve come to accept that I do not have six more years in me,” said Lummis. “I am a devout legislator, but I feel like a sprinter in a marathon. The energy required doesn’t match up.”
The Wyoming senator is one of the key Republicans responsible for pushing lawmakers to consider the digital asset market structure bill. The legislation, which passed the House of Representatives in July, has been debated in the Senate Banking Committee, where Lummis holds a seat, as well as the Senate Agriculture Committee. However, the bill had not been scheduled for a floor vote before the chamber broke for the holidays.
