User reports phishing attack resulting in 500k USDC loss on Base, with stolen funds swapped on Uniswap V4 triggering arbitrage capture by a bot that profited ~320k USDC.
Security & Exploits ·
A user reported losing approximately 500,000 USDC on Base after a wallet phishing attack. The attacker swapped the stolen USDC for roughly 67 WETH on a Uniswap V4 pool, incurring a loss of about 370,000 USDC due to absent slippage protection and low liquidity conditions.
The unfavorable swap created a pricing anomaly that triggered an arbitrage opportunity. A bot captured the trade in the same block and realized a profit of approximately 320,000 USDC from the resulting price correction. The user identified the attacker and notified law enforcement, then appealed directly to the bot operator, offering a 10% bounty in exchange for returning the funds traceable to the phishing attack.
No confirmation of response or fund recovery has been documented. The incident illustrates how phishing losses can be compounded by poor execution parameters and how MEV-capturing infrastructure may profit from exploited positions in the same transaction block.