Major crypto platforms team up against phishing threat

Another wall of defense has been raised against phishing campaigns that have already cost crypto users billions. This time, crypto platforms are joining a global, real-time phishing defense network.

The network was launched by security researchers at Security Alliance (SEAL) and has already been joined by MetaMask, the most popular Ethereum (ETH) wallet; Phantom, another crypto wallet; Backpack, a wallet and exchange; and WalletConnect, a protocol that connects crypto wallets to decentralized applications (dapps).

The network leverages the recently launched Verifiable Phishing Reports technology, a new tool for advanced users and security researchers that helps verify phishing reports.

According to SEAL, the new coalition of crypto platforms will be able to use these reports to create an end-to-end pipeline “which leverages crypto’s decentralized network to build a global immune system.”

“Drainers are a constant cat and mouse game, like most of security. Working alongside SEAL and their independent researchers allows wallet teams like MetaMask to be more agile and apply SEAL's research to practice, effectively throwing a wrench at the drainer's infra,” said Ohm Shah, Security Researcher at MetaMask.

For example, according to crypto security researchers, when they deployed faster updates into eth-phishing-detect, a utility for detecting phishing domains targeting Web3 users, drainers responded by rotating landing pages more quickly. Next, when researchers coordinated with infrastructure providers to mitigate abuse, drainers moved their workloads to offshore bulletproof hosting.

Meanwhile, when the SEAL Phishing Bot was implemented to automate the scanning and blocking of phishing URLs, criminals began using cloaking and other anti-scanning measures.

“It was a battle of attrition, and drainers had the upper hand,” SEAL said, adding that they will continue scaling their ability to detect and mitigate future variants of phishing scams while inviting other wallets to join the network.

In its latest report, the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), an international coalition of counter-cybercrime professionals, said that in the second quarter of 2025, it observed more than 1.13 million phishing attacks, up from just over 1 million in the first quarter of 2025. According to its data, attacks targeting the crypto sector accounted for 2.7% of all incidents.

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