Share this article

Etherscan Reconfigures Blockchain Explorer Settings to Filter Out Potential Scams

Zero-token value transfers will no longer be visible by default as a way of preventing “address poisoning” hacks.

Updated Apr 10, 2023, 7:14 p.m. Published Apr 10, 2023, 6:58 p.m.
(Kevin Ku/Unsplash)
(Kevin Ku/Unsplash)

Etherscan has reconfigured its default blockchain viewing settings in a move to protect users against a common type of phishing scam, the company tweeted on Monday.

The blockchain explorer will now hide zero-value token transfer displays on its website by default. The setting aims to prevent users from becoming victims of "address poisoning" hacks, in which attackers send virtually valueless tokens to a user's wallet addresses to bait them into sending tokens to a scam address.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the The Protocol Newsletter today. See all newsletters

"In recent times, address poisoning attacks have phished unsuspecting users and spammed everybody else," said Etherscan. "Preventing scams and attacks in a neutral and scalable way is an infinite cat-and-mouse game."

Zero-value token transfers have drained $19 million from victims' wallets between late November 2022 and Feb. 13, 2023, according to Coinbase. To view zero-value token transfers, users will have to disable the feature in the website's setting page.

More For You

Pudgy Penguins: A New Blueprint for Tokenized Culture

Pudgy Title Image

Pudgy Penguins is building a multi-vertical consumer IP platform — combining phygital products, games, NFTs and PENGU to monetize culture at scale.

What to know:

Pudgy Penguins is emerging as one of the strongest NFT-native brands of this cycle, shifting from speculative “digital luxury goods” into a multi-vertical consumer IP platform. Its strategy is to acquire users through mainstream channels first; toys, retail partnerships and viral media, then onboard them into Web3 through games, NFTs and the PENGU token.

The ecosystem now spans phygital products (> $13M retail sales and >1M units sold), games and experiences (Pudgy Party surpassed 500k downloads in two weeks), and a widely distributed token (airdropped to 6M+ wallets). While the market is currently pricing Pudgy at a premium relative to traditional IP peers, sustained success depends on execution across retail expansion, gaming adoption and deeper token utility.

More For You

MegaETH mainnet to go live Feb. 9 in major test of ‘real-time’ Ethereum scaling

(MegaLabs)

This follows its October 2025 $450 million token sale that was heavily oversubscribed.

What to know:

  • MegaETH, the much-watched high-performance Ethereum layer-2 network, announced that its public mainnet will go live Feb. 9, marking a major milestone for a project that has gained a lot of attention in the scaling landscape.
  • MegaETH positions itself as a “real-time” blockchain for Ethereum, designed to deliver ultra-low latency and massive transaction throughput.