Fraud losses in the cryptocurrency sector reached $370 million in January, the highest in nearly 11 months

On February 22, Uniswap founder Hayden Adams warned that search engine ads impersonating Uniswap continue to appear, causing some users to lose all their high-value crypto assets. Scammers purchase keywords like “Uniswap” to place fake websites at the top of search results, with page designs highly similar to the official site. Once users connect their wallets and authorize transactions, funds can be immediately transferred away. These attacks rely on user signature authorization rather than protocol-level vulnerabilities. An X platform user, “Ika,” stated that after clicking on a fake link in the search results, they lost crypto assets worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Screenshots disclosed by the user show the fake link positioned at the top of search results, making it highly deceptive. Similar incidents occurred in October 2024, when scammers replicated the Uniswap website interface and used subtle button modifications to trick users into connecting their wallets. Data from security firm CertiK shows that in January 2026, the crypto industry lost approximately $370.3 million due to exploits and scams, the highest in nearly 11 months and nearly four times the amount lost in January 2025. A single social engineering attack caused losses of about $284 million. In January, 40 related security incidents were recorded. Analysis indicates that current crypto asset losses are increasingly driven by user-level risks such as phishing links, fake ads, and social engineering attacks, rather than underlying smart contract vulnerabilities. As the DeFi ecosystem expands, brand impersonation and interface fraud are becoming significant threats to user trust.