Dust attack: a hidden mechanism for tracking crypto assets

A dust attack is one of the most common threats in the blockchain industry. According to analysts, in 2024 alone, losses from dust attacks exceeded $2 billion.

What is a dust attack?

A dust attack is a malicious activity in which attackers send victims transactions with very small amounts of cryptocurrency — "dust."

In the blockchain sphere, "dust" refers to an insignificant amount of cryptocurrency, for example, several dozen or hundreds of satoshis (the smallest unit of Bitcoin) — usually not exceeding the equivalent of a few cents. According to experts, crypto users often ignore such transactions and fail to notice them, which is exactly what attackers rely on.

By themselves, microtransactions do not pose a threat to the user. The danger of a dust attack lies in the fact that the "dust" gets mixed with "clean" coins in the wallet, allowing attackers to easily track all further movements of the user's assets.

This is because the Bitcoin blockchain uses the classic UTXO (Unspent Transaction Output) model, which links addresses together during transactions, providing the basis for dust attacks. Thus, by "infecting" one address with dust, other addresses associated with the user's wallet automatically become marked after transactions are sent to them.

A dust attack also poses a threat to other ecosystems that operate on the Account model*. These include blockchains such as Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Solana.

* Account — an accounting model in which each address functions as a separate account with a current balance; when transactions are executed, the sender's balance decreases and the recipient's balance increases, without creating and tracking individual transaction outputs.

How does a dust attack work?

A dust attack is carried out as follows: attackers identify which addresses users send funds to and insert their own similar-looking addresses into the transaction history, expecting that sooner or later the victim will make a mistake.

In this case, the calculation is that the user will copy the fraudulent address from the transaction history instead of the one they usually send funds to. For example, in December 2025, a user became a victim of such a dust attack and lost about $50 million after mistakenly sending cryptocurrency to a scammer's address that looked similar.

How to recognize a dust attack?

As mentioned earlier, the danger of a dust attack lies in its stealth. From the user's perspective, an incoming microtransaction appears to be a harmless transfer. Many users, especially beginners, do not pay attention to such transactions.

Therefore, to detect a dust attack, it is important to carefully review the transaction history. The first sign is receiving funds from an unknown address. If the user does not understand why or where the microtransaction originated, this may indicate a dust attack on their wallet.

The second sign is patterns. As a rule, dust attacks are carried out using automated distribution via specialized software. If you analyze transactions sent from a suspicious address, you can identify similar timestamps, multiple transfers of identical small amounts, and other typical patterns. All of this indicates that a dust attack has taken place.

How to protect yourself from a dust attack?

Unfortunately, any address can be subjected to a dust attack. All addresses in public blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum are open to all users. Because of this, no user can be fully protected from dust attacks.

You can protect yourself from a dust attack in several ways:

1. Carefully verify addresses before sending, and do not blindly copy them from transaction history. For greater security, use pre-saved addresses or send funds only to wallets from a "whitelist" if your wallet supports this feature;
2. Generate new addresses for transactions. Among other things, this increases transaction privacy and makes third-party tracking more difficult. Such features are available in advanced crypto wallets like Electrum, as well as in hierarchical deterministic wallets supporting the BIP44 format (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal).
3. Avoid transactions that allow linking a wallet address to the user's real identity.

If a user's wallet has already been subjected to a dust attack, there are also ways to protect against further threats.

The first method of protection is not to spend the received dust. However, for beginners, this may be difficult, as it requires understanding how inputs and outputs work in the Bitcoin blockchain.

The second method is to use crypto mixers, which can, in theory, obscure the trail for external observers. However, the drawback is that the user's address may be blacklisted by exchanges due to the presence of "tainted" assets.

Addresses of users of crypto mixers are often flagged in this way, so this is not the most effective protection. Moreover, experts note that professional analysts can still track transactions carried out through mixers.

A more reliable way to break the link between addresses and protect against a dust attack is to convert the digital asset into fiat currency. For example, you can sell cryptocurrency through an exchanger found on the BestChange website. Then, if you receive cryptocurrency to a new address through the same or another exchanger, the link will be broken, and attackers will not be able to track further movements of the user's assets. This requires costs but helps protect against the consequences of a dust attack without the risk of "contaminating" the wallet.