Steam Nukes Crypto-Stealing Game That Swiped $150,000 From Gamers

Valve's gaming platform cracks down on malicious software disguised as entertainment.

The Digital Heist Hits Gaming

Another day, another crypto scam—this time hijacking Steam's massive user base. The platform yanked a game that secretly installed cryptocurrency-mining malware, siphoning digital assets from unsuspecting players.

How the Attack Unfolded

The malware operated silently in the background, draining wallets while users thought they were just gaming. It bypassed Steam's security checks initially, highlighting ongoing vulnerabilities in digital distribution systems.

The Aftermath

Valve acted swiftly upon discovery, but not before the scheme netted its operators a tidy sum. The incident exposes how cybercriminals continuously adapt to new environments—because why bother with traditional bank robberies when you can steal digitally with lower risk?

Just another reminder that in the wild west of digital assets, sometimes the biggest threats aren't market volatility—they're hiding in plain sight on platforms we trust.

Steam Hosted Crypto Malware

Part of the ongoing crypto crime wave has involved increasingly sophisticated malware operations, which use new vectors to steal tokens.

Nonetheless, this newest scamming method is particularly unsettling. Steam is the Gold standard for online gaming storefronts, and it directly hosted crypto malware:

You clowns allow malware on your platform that has resulted in $150K+ stolen from victims (fake game has been available to download for more than a month) pic.twitter.com/886rO1PbDP

Specifically, Steam hosted sales of “Block Blasters,” a fake game containing dangerous malware. For over one month, this game was live, running secret executables that WOULD target players’ wallets.

In this way, it stole at least $150,000 in various cryptoassets, but the total theft quantity may be much higher.

Cracking The Case

ZachXBT, a famous crypto sleuth, didn’t necessarily spearhead this malware investigation, but he used his large platform to alert Steam. To its credit, the platform quickly removed the game after his notification. Nonetheless, it never should’ve survived on the storefront for several weeks.

The investigators who unraveled this scheme uncovered several disturbing trends. First of all, the malware itself showed telltale fingerprints of AI-generated code, which allowed WHITE hats to dissect it comprehensively. This may explain how they were able to confront the hackers directly.

Essentially, this Steam crypto malware investigation began after a terminally ill cancer patient was defrauded of $32,000. The criminals showed zero remorse when confronted, claiming that the victim would “make it all back” as an active crypto trader.

This disturbing comment further incensed investigators to take apart the group.

These hackers evidently had little technical prowess, leaning on AI to make their software infrastructure and getting unmasked by community detectives. Still, their blatant malware managed to bypass all of Steam’s security protocols.

In other words, this is a major scandal, and Steam needs to take more proactive prevention measures in the future.