The Ethereum Foundation (EF) is intensifying its efforts to combat the rising threat of wallet drainers by sponsoring the Security Alliance (SEAL), a crypto security nonprofit. This collaboration aims to proactively "track and neutralize" these malicious actors and other social engineering attacks targeting Ethereum users.

Wallet drainers are a type of malware that steals digital assets by tricking users into signing malicious transactions that grant the attacker control of the funds. These scams often involve fake websites or fraudulent emails that impersonate legitimate crypto protocols. Users are lured into connecting their wallets and approving seemingly harmless transactions, which in reality, drain their accounts.

SEAL initiated the "Trillion Dollar Security" program with support from the EF to fund security engineers dedicated to closely monitoring drainer development and preventing large-scale attacks. The EF is now sponsoring a security engineer whose primary focus will be collaborating with SEAL's intelligence team to fight drainers targeting Ethereum users.

SEAL's broader mission involves safeguarding crypto market participants through collaborative threat intelligence sharing, incident response, and legal protection for white-hat hackers. The Ethereum Foundation acknowledged SEAL's valuable contributions to combating attacks and benefiting the ecosystem.

ScamSniffer, a crypto intelligence platform, estimates that scammers have stolen nearly $1 billion in crypto funds over the years. However, the efforts of SEAL and other crypto security initiatives have helped reduce these losses to $84 million in 2025, marking an all-time low.

To track progress, SEAL and the EF have launched a Trillion Dollar Security dashboard to monitor Ethereum's security across six key dimensions: user experience, smart contracts, infrastructure and cloud, consensus protocol, monitoring and incident response, social layer and governance.

Wallet drainers have become increasingly sophisticated, necessitating improved detection and prevention methods. These phishing scams are often spread through phishing ads, supply chain attacks, and social media platforms like Discord and Telegram. The attackers are agile, quickly cycling through phishing sites and shifting infrastructure offshore while using cloaking techniques to hide their operations.

In 2024, nearly $500 million in cryptocurrency was stolen from over 332,000 addresses via wallet drainer malware. This represented a 67% year-over-year increase in losses. While attacks were more frequent in the first quarter of the year, the two largest attacks, totaling $55.48 million and $32.51 million, occurred in August and September, respectively.

To protect against wallet drainers, users should be cautious when connecting their wallets to unfamiliar sites and avoid chasing free tokens or NFT giveaways. It is crucial to verify token sources and only trust official websites.

The Ethereum Foundation's collaboration with SEAL represents a significant step towards enhancing the security of the Ethereum ecosystem and protecting users from the growing threat of wallet drainers. By combining resources and expertise, the two organizations aim to create a safer environment for all participants in the Ethereum network.