Crypto Dusting Attacks

What Is Crypto Dusting?

Crypto dusting is the act of sending a very small asset amount to an address. The deposit can be harmless spam, but it becomes a dusting attack when someone uses later wallet activity to cluster addresses, track an owner, or support phishing and impersonation.

How Dusting Surveillance Works

1. The Micro Deposit: An attacker sends an unnoticeable fraction of a coin (such as 0.00000546 BTC or 0.0001 SOL) to your public blockchain address.
2. The Combined Spend: When you later execute a normal transaction, your wallet software unknowingly bundles this tiny dust UTXO with your primary savings balance to fund the transfer.
3. Onchain Identity Unmasking: The attacker tracks the destination address of the combined transaction using blockchain analytics software, linking multiple separate addresses to a single individual owner.

The Two Motivations Behind Dusting

1. Surveillance and Targeted Phishing: Attackers link your wallet to known exchange accounts or real world identities to deploy targeted social engineering attacks.
2. Memo Phishing Scams: Attackers send dust containing malicious website links in the transaction memo, tricking users into visiting phishing sites offering fake rewards or airdrops.

How to Protect Your Wallet Against Dusting

1. Do Not Spend Unknown Dust: In advanced wallets (like Sparrow or Electrum), use Coin Control features to mark unverified micro deposits as Do Not Spend.
2. Ignore Scam Memos: Never visit website URLs, claim fake airdrops, or interact with unverified tokens deposited into your wallet balance.
3. Use Separate Wallets: Maintain strict isolation between public trading hot wallets and offline savings vaults.

Learn operational security in the Complete Cold Storage Guide, or follow the wallet and onchain lessons through Academy School.