© 2026 Della Group. All Rights Reserved.
Picture this: You're chilling on a Friday night, checking your phone, and bam-your crypto wallet app shows a bunch of weird transactions. Half your ETH gone. Some random address you don't know has your BTC. Heart drops, right? Sound familiar? Happened to my buddy last year. He lost like 2 ETH before he even realized. But he got the rest safe. You can too. Don't freak out yet. Follow these 8 steps, and you'll lock things down fast. The thing is, speed matters. Hackers move quick.
In my experience, most hacks come from phishing links, bad dApps, or malware on your phone. Whatever. Doesn't matter now. Act.
Okay, first-don't assume. Pull up your wallet history. Look for unauthorized transfers. Unfamiliar addresses popping up? That's a red flag. Check if your 2FA got turned off or password changed. I usually open a block explorer like Etherscan for ETH or Solscan for SOL. Paste your wallet address. See recent txns. Gas fees on ETH might be like 20-50 gwei right now, but ignore that-spot the outflows you didn't do.
Why does this matter? Could be a glitch or you fat fingered something. But probably not. Rule out forgotten password first. Try logging in with your seed phrase on a clean device. No? Hacked. Move on.
Super short: Document it all. Screenshots. Tx IDs. Times. You'll need 'em later.
Stop. Put your phone in airplane mode. Unplug your computer. Whatever device has the wallet, isolate it. Don't sign anything. Hackers might still be lurking.
Go to your wallet approvals. Revoke any dApp connections. On sites like Revoke.cash, connect read only and zap those permissions. Free, takes 2 minutes, costs maybe 0.001 ETH in gas. Better than losing more.
And your email? Check for phishing crap. Change passwords everywhere if you reuse 'em. Honestly, if you do, that's probably how they got in. Use a password manager like 1Password from now on. 16+ chars, mix it up.
Gas fees? On ETH, expect 10-30 gwei today. SOL's cheap, ~0.000005 SOL per txn. Don't reuse the old wallet. Ever. Burn it mentally.
Issue? If balances show zero already, skip to reporting. But hey, sometimes they drain slow.
Hit up any linked exchange. Coinbase? Binance? Tell 'em the tx hash, your wallet, thief's address. They might freeze if funds land there. Provide timestamps, everything.
US folks? File with FBI's IC3.gov. Or local cops. Action Fraud if UK, but same idea. Details: tx ID, amounts, chains involved (ETH, BTC, etc.).
Alert the blockchain sleuths. Firms like Elliptic or Chainalysis trace funds. Not cheap-thousands-but if you lost 10k+, worth it. They pressure exchanges to freeze.
Post on crypto Twitter or Reddit (r/cryptocurrency). No sensitive info. Just "Lost X to this address, heads up." Community might spot it.
| Problem | Quick Fix |
|---|---|
| No funds left | Focus on tracing. Hire forensics. |
| Multi sig wallet | Rotate all keys. Get new hardware for each signer. |
| Malware suspected | Scan with Malwarebytes. Full wipe if needed. |
| Phishing confirmed | Change all linked accounts. New email for crypto. |
See? Not rocket science. But do it right.
Grab every scrap. Export txn history. Screenshots of wallet before/after. Emails from exchanges. All of it. Folder named "Hack-[date]". Why? Insurance claims, lawyers, cops need proof.
In my experience, this saves your ass later. One guy I know got partial recovery cuz his records were tight.
Recovery ain't guaranteed. Blockchain's forever, but thieves tumble funds quick through mixers like Tornado Cash (banned now, but clones exist). Still, try.
Hire a recovery service. Vet 'em hard-check reviews, no upfront fees over 20%. They use tools to track. Success rate? 20-40% for fresh hacks.
Legal? If big bucks, lawyer up. Civil suits against exchanges if they slipped. But tracing humans? Tough. Satoshi's ghost level hard.
Check your own backups. Old seed file? Password tool from trusted source. But risky-don't expose more.
Patience. Don't pay "recovery scammers." They steal more.
Now rebuild stronger. Hardware wallet time. Ledger Nano X or Trezor. Buy direct, ship to locker. Costs $100-150. Offline signing. Clear sign txns-no blind BS.
Split funds. 80% cold storage. 20% hot for trading. Multi sig for big stacks-needs 2/3 keys.
Passwords: Unique. 2FA everywhere. YubiKey if you can. Update wallet apps weekly. Antivirus on. No public WiFi txns.
Monitor. Set alerts for txns over $100. Apps like Blockaid or wallet natives.
I usually keep a "crypto only" email. No newsletters. Sensitive stuff only.
Okay, last push. Diversify wallets. ETH in one, BTC in another. Don't all eggs one basket.
Never lend devices with funds. Move 'em first.
Rooted phone? New one. Jailbreak? Nope.
And test restores. Every 3 months, buy new hardware, restore seed, send test coin, wipe. Confirms your backup works.
Pretty much foolproof if you follow this. My buddy? Zero losses after. You're next.
One more: Insurance. Nexus Mutual or exchange plans cover hacks sometimes. Check if you qualify post incident.
Reusing seeds. Panic selling. Ignoring small txns. Sharing phrases for "help." All bad.
© 2026 Della Group. All Rights Reserved.