You've heard of stablecoins, right? They're pegged to the dollar, so they don't swing wildly like Bitcoin. Great for payments and transfers. But here's the thing—"stable" doesn't mean "safe from mistakes."

Our research found that in 2024 alone, crypto losses hit $2.2 billion. The surprising part? Most weren't sophisticated hacks. They were simple user errors.

Let me walk you through what we found.

1. Mixing Up Networks

USDT isn't just USDT. There's TRC20, ERC20, BEP20—different networks. Think of it like highways. If you send money on Highway A but the recipient is waiting on Highway B, it never arrives.

Why do people get confused? The addresses look almost identical. Both ERC20 and BEP20 start with "0x" and have the same length.

Fees vary wildly too:

• TRC20: Usually under $1
• ERC20: Can hit $50+ when busy

📌 Real case: $50 million vanished (December 2024)

Someone sent a 50 USDT test from Binance. Worked fine. Then sent $50 million. Problem? They copied the address from transaction history, where a hacker had planted a fake address with matching first and last characters. Gone in 12 minutes, laundered in 30. The victim offered $1 million reward. Still unrecovered.

What to do:

• Always verify the network matches on both ends
• Never copy from transaction history—use the original address
• Test with small amounts first

2. Not Checking Addresses Properly

Addresses are 34+ characters. Most people glance at the first and last few and hit send. Hackers exploit exactly this.

Clipboard malware is real. You copy an address, but when you paste, it's been swapped to the hacker's. You don't notice.

📌 Real case: CryptoShuffler stole $150,000+ (2017)

Kaspersky discovered this malware watching clipboards 24/7. Copy a crypto address? Silently replaced. It used almost no CPU, so antivirus missed it.