A person who bought what looked like a “sealed, brand-new” hardware wallet advertised on the Chinese version of TikTok was a victim of a $6.9-million crypto heist, losing all their funds in minutes.
A late-night distress call to blockchain security firm SlowMist revealed one of 2025’s most devastating cryptocurrency thefts. Criminals are now exploiting the very security devices meant to protect users from online threats. It’s a sophisticated new threat in crypto fraud, and honestly, it’s a worry for many users to see hardware wallet tampering result in a multimillion-dollar criminal exploit.
SlowMist chief information security officer 23pds was the first to report the case. Unlike well-known scams using phishing emails, unsolicited messages or spoof websites, this attack hits the victim’s security at the hardware level.
The biggest problem of all for crypto users is that there are minimal warning signs for this type of compromise until it’s too late.
