$11m recovered by Venus Protocol following a $13M phishing scam demonstrates that crypto recovery and security are credible and fast.
On September 2, 2025, Venus Protocol recovered its stolen cryptocurrencies, which were a part of the phishing attack of a total of $13 million.
The attacker tricked a victim into deploying a bogus Zoom client. This allowed the offender to empty the victim’s Venus Protocol account.
Venus ceased its operations in a few minutes to prevent any further loss. The team acted quickly to stabilize the platform and restore the funds.
Zoom Scam Leads to Massive Crypto Theft
A rogue Zoom program lets the hacker take over a victim’s device. They persuaded the victim to authorize a transaction.
The attacker gained delegated authority over the user’s Venus account. Using this access, the attacker borrowed and redeemed assets.
They stole stablecoins such as USDT, USDC, and FDUSD, as well as wrapped tokens such as wBETH and BTCB.
No fault in the smart contract or application of Venus was the source of the attack. Rather, it was as a result of a social engineering deception against the user himself.
The security personnel of Venus Protocol ensured that the protocol was safe. Their audit ruled out any vulnerabilities in the front-end of the dApp.
The attack demonstrated that phishing and malware are an increasingly dangerous threat to crypto users. Care has to be exercised in the approval of transactions and installations of software by the users.
Rapid Defense and Fund Recovery Saves User Millions
Venus Protocol started all main activities in less than 20 minutes of suspicious activity detection. Venus was soon alerted by trusted blockchain security firms Hexagate, Hypernative, and PeckShield. Their reports allowed Venus to stop transactions and save users.
The platform remained idle in the middle of a profound security audit to prevent incurring additional exploits. The Venus community passed a recovery plan through a lightning vote. Attacker wallet dissolution was forced by this strategy.
The stolen tokens were sent back to the account of the victim soon after. The whole process of recovery, investigation, and transfer of funds took less than 12 hours.
The Venice Protocol subsequently reinstated its services in full, allowing users to settle their debts and proceed with the usage of the platform in safety.
The victim, Kuan Sun, CEO of Eureka Trading, became relieved and grateful. He termed the recovery as a win in a rugged battle.
He cautioned other people to beware of phishing. The scholars note that phishing has resulted in more than 410 million dollars of crypto impact in early 2025 alone. This event underlines the importance of further education and a high security level in DeFi.
