Dusting Attacks: How Tiny Crypto Transactions Deanonymize You

A dusting attack sends minuscule amounts of cryptocurrency (dust) to many wallets. When recipients spend the dust alongside their other funds, the attacker can link addresses together through common-input-ownership analysis.

How Dusting Works

Attacker sends 546 satoshis (minimum transaction amount) to thousands of addresses. When a recipient creates a transaction that includes the dust UTXO with other UTXOs, all those addresses become linked. If any linked address is known (KYC exchange deposit), the attacker learns who controls the other addresses.

Detection and Defense

Monitor your wallet for unexpected incoming micro-transactions. Most modern wallets (Wasabi, Samourai) can identify and flag dust. Never spend dust outputs — leave them untouched. Use coin control to manually select which UTXOs to include in transactions. Better yet, use Monero, which is immune to dusting attacks due to its privacy features.

Who Uses Dusting?

Chain analysis companies use dusting to map wallet clusters. Law enforcement uses it during investigations. Scammers dust wallets to build target lists. It's a cheap, scalable technique — sending dust to 100,000 addresses costs a few dollars in transaction fees.