January 2026 arrived like a stand-up set in a dive bar: loud, slightly panic-inducing, and somehow still overpriced. Extropy’s Security Bytes read like a prank call from a particularly irate ghost in the machine.
Truebit Protocol Loses $26 Million to a Zombie Code Flaw
The year’s first big hit lands on January 8: Truebit Protocol, a name that sounds like a diet plan for clever bots, gets sucker-punched by a legacy code flaw. An integer overflow in aging smart contracts allows an attacker to mint millions of TRU tokens almost for free. It’s as if someone found the cheat codes in a forgotten video game and decided to publish them in the Wall Street Journal. Liquidity evaporates in hours; the TRU price drops as quickly as my confidence in online dating after three months of trials.
Security firms later trace 8,535 ETH moving through Tornado Cash-because nothing says privacy like money that used to be visible on the blockchain. They link the wallet to a Sparkle Protocol exploit, implying a repeat offender that targets abandoned contracts the way I target my morning coffee: with gusto and a hint of desperation.
Legacy contracts, Extropy warns, are ticking time bombs. Projects should monitor or deprecate old code like a landlord evicting a tenant who never paid the rent in the first place.
TMXTribe Watches $1.4M Drain Over 36 Hours
From January 5 to January 7, TMXTribe experiences the more patient cousin of a heist: a $1.4 million drain over 36 relentless hours on the GMX fork for Arbitrum. The exploit is described as mechanically simple: mint LP tokens, swap to stablecoins, unstake again and yet again, all while the exact flaw remains unverified behind a curtain of unverified contracts.
The researchers’ heads must have been spinning, because the team stays active on-chain through the drain, pushing updates and new contracts like a band changing the set list during the encore. No emergency pause is triggered; instead, they send an on-chain bounty to the thief-who politely ignores it, bridges the money to Ethereum, and launders through Tornado Cash. If you’re keeping score, that’s both bold and reckless in approximately equal measure.
Extropy wonders if this is reckless negligence or something more worrisome-either way, unverified contracts read like red flags waving in a hurricane.
In the first days of January we’ve already seen the full spectrum of Web3 failure modes: zombie contracts printing money, governance turning into civil war, unverified forks bleeding out in slow motion, supply-chain leaks putting users at physical risk, phishing that weaponizes…
Ledger Customers Face Physical Security Risks
On January 5, Ledger confirms a data breach that isn’t the hardware’s fault but Global-e’s. Names, shipping addresses, and contact details escape into the wild. Extropy calls this a “wrench attack” scenario, because attackers now possess a list of wallet owners and their actual street locations-very comforting for people who like their crypto with a side of daylight.
The irony tastes like a mouthful of pennies. Ledger criticized for charging for security features; now their payment processor exposes users to physical risk at zero cost. Expect highly convincing phishing attempts, and don’t be surprised if attackers pretend to be your own grandmother with a better hardware wallet.
Phishing will be especially persuasive because the stolen data allows attackers to craft personalized messages that feel just human enough to trust. Watch your inbox like a hawk wearing a tie.
Related Reading: A Round Up of Security Incidents Surrounding Ledger Hardware Wallets
MetaMask Phishing Campaign Drains $107,000
ZachXBT alerts us to a sophisticated phishing op targeting MetaMask users. More than $107,000 vanishes from hundreds of wallets. Victims receive professional-looking emails claiming a mandatory 2026 upgrade, complete with a polished marketing template and a subtly modified MetaMask logo. Extropy calls the party-hat fox design oddly festive-like a mascot for a tax audit with better shoes.
Crucially, the scam doesn’t ask for seed phrases. It asks you to sign contract approvals, letting attackers move tokens from your wallet with a drag of a mouse. The per-wallet theft stays under $2,000, probably to avoid alert fatigue. Extropy notes that signatures can be just as dangerous as leaked keys; consent is a powerful weapon in this world.
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2026-01-13 18:49