As soon as the plane landed, Lao Li pulled out his phone and opened imToken—what he saw on the screen made his legs go weak: 3 million TRC20-USDT, completely gone.

Before his business trip, he had specially reminded his wife to transfer some USDT to top up the margin. Now the wallet balance was zero, and the on-chain records were all to some unknown addresses. After an investigation, the police concluded: the family member operated the wallet herself, so it wasn’t theft. His wife broke down in tears on the spot: “I just copied the mnemonic phrase from your WeChat message…”

The real vulnerability was in the details—the old Android phone he’d used for three years without ever changing the password, the home WiFi that hadn’t had its key changed in three years, and a shady app called “Crypto Market Assistant” installed on his phone. SlowMist’s 2024 security report has some painful stats: 78% of crypto theft cases are related to mnemonic phrase leaks. Malicious plugins like this can monitor your clipboard in real time; as soon as you copy the mnemonic, the private key gets stolen, the funds are transferred out in seconds, and with a mixer used, not even a trace is left.

Want to survive in crypto? Engrave these three iron rules into your DNA:

Your mnemonic MUST be “physically isolated”—don’t put it in WeChat, cloud drives, or memos. Engrave it onto a piece of stainless steel and hide it well. Screenshots? That’s like hanging your house key on your front door.

Only use a “clean device” to operate your wallet. Only install official apps, never touch public WiFi, and malicious plugins like “pytoileur” are basically suicide.

If family members need to touch the wallet? Watch them on video the entire time. Before transferring, triple-check the last four digits of the address—one wrong letter and it’s over.

Bybit’s $1.08 billion hack is still a fresh, bloody lesson—hackers can wipe logs clean in 72 hours, and if you lose your coins, you won’t even have evidence left.

Check right now: Is your mnemonic still sitting in your WeChat favorites? Any suspicious plugins on your device? Do your family members really understand these risks?

Reading charts is a skill, but keeping your wallet safe is the real way to survive in this space.