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Points of Focus
- A developer said $170,000 was drained from Morpho vaults on Sept. 1.
- The described attack matches a documented NPM supply chain worm pattern.
- This account is self-reported and hasn’t been independently verified.
A developer using the handle Tianyi said an attacker withdrew roughly $170,000 from their Morpho vault positions on Sept. 1, moving the funds through Base into Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC), while simultaneously hijacking their X account.
To the hacker who attacked me on Sep 1:
I haven't had any income for 3 years. the $170k you transferred out is all my savings — the money supports me write my code 16+hrs per day for chasing my dream.
I have to move on, I need to provide for my family and keep chasing my dream.… pic.twitter.com/0VbNsDvLOH
— Tianyi (@tianyi_gc) September 2, 2026
This account comes from the victim’s public statement and hasn’t been independently confirmed by a third party.
Morpho vault withdrawals totaled $170,000 in one hack
Onchain records that the victim shared show two specific withdrawals; $72,024 came from a Steakhouse Prime USDC (USDC) vault, and $103,157 came from a Spark USDC vault, both timestamped within a minute of each other. The victim said they had no income for three years, and the funds represented savings supporting full-time independent development work.
The victim also said their X account was compromised at the same time, with the account’s registered email changed without their authorization. Both events happened within the same three-hour window, based on the timeline the victim posted.
Malicious app matches a known NPM attack pattern
The victim said three applications installed on their Mac were the likely entry point. One came from a well-known company, one was an open-source project, and a former colleague built one. The victim said the attacker likely used macOS automation tools to phish a password, then hijacked an active browser session to take over other accounts.
That mechanism matches a documented, escalating threat pattern rather than an isolated incident. Microsoft’s security team described a self-propagating NPM worm called ChainDrop in August. It specifically targets Claude Code and Visual Studio Code configuration files for persistence. The worm harvests credentials across NPM, GitHub, and cloud infrastructure, then automatically republishes itself into additional packages.
This NPM attack campaign isn’t a one-off incident
This isn’t a single, isolated campaign. A separate NPM worm linked to the Keyv package poisoned hundreds of package versions in early August, planting the same kind of developer-tool hooks Microsoft documented.
A more recent disclosure found malicious packages tampering with configuration files across Claude, Cursor, Copilot, Windsurf, and other AI coding assistants. Some of these packages carried valid, cryptographically signed NPM provenance attestations — a significant detail. Signed provenance alone doesn’t guarantee a package is safe if the release pipeline that generated the signature can itself be compromised.
Why this crypto hack account needs independent verification
This specific victim’s account is self-reported. No named security company has independently investigated or confirmed this individual case. It should be read as one developer’s claim consistent with a documented industry pattern, not as a verified, investigated incident with confirmed attribution.
The broader pattern it fits — malware embedding itself in trusted-looking developer tools specifically to target AI coding assistants and the credentials around them — is independently documented across multiple sources, including Microsoft directly.
Why crypto developers are AI coding tool attack targets
Developers working directly with onchain funds represent a specific, high-value target for this kind of attack. A compromised laptop doesn’t just expose code or cloud credentials. It can expose direct access to wallets, vault positions, and exchange accounts sitting on the same machine.
The victim’s closing point is worth noting for other developers in this position. They said the experience shifted their focus toward sandboxed execution environments for AI agents, treating isolation as a baseline requirement rather than an afterthought when running any third-party developer tool alongside sensitive financial infrastructure.
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