CZ vs. Etherscan: The Battle Against Spam Transactions That Could Ruin Your Crypto Life

by

In the ongoing saga of “Who’s to Blame for the Crypto Spam?”, CZ, the former CEO of Binance, has taken a bold stand against Etherscan for displaying spam transactions from address-poisoning scams. It turns out that block explorers should be doing more than just sitting there looking pretty-they should be actively filtering out those malicious transfers like the unwanted dinner guests they are.

  • CZ argues that block explorers should be doing more to filter out address-poisoning spam. In other words, stop showing the bad stuff, please.
  • One unlucky user received 89 poisoning alerts in less time than it takes to microwave a pizza (30 minutes), after just two transfers.
  • Scammers, the sneaky little devils, use lookalike addresses and zero-value transfers to trick users into making costly mistakes.

The drama began when CZ posted on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) that TrustWallet already has a system in place that does this filtering, while Etherscan continues to show zero-value poisoning transactions that flood user wallets like an all-you-can-eat spam buffet.

In a truly unfortunate turn of events, Nima, a user with remarkably bad luck, received 89 address-poisoning emails in under 30 minutes after just two stablecoin transfers on Ethereum. So much for the idea of a “safe” wallet!

And just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, Etherscan issued a warning about the attack, which aims to trick users into copying lookalike addresses from their transaction history. It’s a little like finding a fake parking ticket on your windshield-annoying, potentially costly, and entirely avoidable if someone had been paying attention.

“So many will fall victim to this,” Nima lamented, clearly not thrilled about his wallet becoming the latest target of this automated attack campaign.

Block explorers should not show these spam transactions. Should be simple to filter them out completely. @TrustWallet does this already.

This may have some impact on micro transactions between AI agents later. By then, we can use AI to filter out the spam too.

– CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) March 13, 2026

CZ Goes After Etherscan for Showing Spam Transactions

In a shocking twist that no one saw coming (except maybe the people who actually read these things), Xeift explained that while Etherscan hides zero-value transfers by default, BscScan and Basescan make users explicitly click a “hide 0 amount tx” button to remove address poisoning attack transactions. Clearly, one click is too much to ask when you’re already swimming in a sea of spam.

The key difference in these default settings leaves some users completely exposed to seeing spam that could end up causing them to send funds to attacker-controlled addresses. A rookie mistake in the world of crypto, no doubt.

CZ, in his infinite wisdom, noted that this filtering may impact microtransactions between AI agents in the future. Because if we’re not careful, AI will start making decisions based on bad data-and we wouldn’t want that, would we? Just imagine AI agents falling victim to the same scams as humans. It’s enough to make you worry about what your fridge is up to when you’re not looking.

Meanwhile, Dr. Favezy made another valid point about swaps, which create their own unique risks beyond address poisoning. For example, a swap from the 0x98 wallet turned $50 million into just $36,000. Turns out, when it comes to routing and liquidity, things don’t always go according to plan. Dr. Favezy optimistically hopes that AI agents will one day route through the right routers and select the best liquidity sources to avoid such debacles. A noble wish, indeed.

Address Poisoning: The Spamming That Keeps on Giving

So how does address poisoning actually work? It’s surprisingly simple. Attackers send zero-value token transfers using the transferFrom function, creating transfer events that appear in victim transaction histories. The worst part? Every address by default approves 0-value transfers. It’s like opening your front door and inviting the entire neighborhood to your living room without realizing you’ve just let in a bunch of troublemakers.

To make matters worse, attackers employ address spoofing, ensuring that the fake addresses they send match the first and last characters of legitimate addresses. It’s the crypto equivalent of wearing a disguise-except, in this case, the disguise is a little too obvious, and the consequences are a lot more costly.

Nima’s ordeal shows just how bad these attacks can get. After only two legitimate transfers, he received 89 poisoning attempts in just 30 minutes. The worst part? This automated attack can target thousands of wallets at once. And all of this is happening while you’re sipping your coffee and thinking everything’s fine in the world of crypto.

Read More

2026-03-14 21:47