In January, losses from fraud in the cryptocurrency sector reached $370 million, a new high in nearly 11 months

Uniswap founder Hayden Adams warned that search engine ads impersonating Uniswap continue to appear, resulting in users losing all their high-value crypto assets. Scammers purchase ads for keywords like "Uniswap" to display fake websites at the top, with designs that closely resemble the official site. Once users connect their wallets and authorize transactions, their funds can be immediately transferred away.

These types of attacks rely on user signature authorization rather than protocol layer vulnerabilities. An X platform user "Ika" reported losing crypto wallet assets worth hundreds of thousands of dollars after clicking on a counterfeit link in the search results. Screenshots shared by them show that the fake link was at the top of the search results, making it highly misleading. Similar incidents occurred in October 2024, where scammers replicated the Uniswap website interface and induced users to connect their wallets through subtle button changes.

Data from security company CertiK shows that in January 2026, the crypto industry lost approximately $370.3 million due to exploits and scams, marking a nearly 11-month high and nearly four times the losses of January 2025. A single social engineering attack resulted in losses of about $284 million. January recorded a total of 40 related security incidents. Analysis indicates that current crypto asset losses are more often due to phishing links, false advertisements, and social engineering attacks, rather than vulnerabilities in underlying smart contracts. As the DeFi ecosystem expands, brand impersonation and interface fraud are becoming significant risks affecting user trust.