Dust refers to tiny amounts of cryptocurrency left in your wallet. While dust itself is harmless, a dust attack happens when someone sends small amounts of crypto to your wallet for malicious purposes.
In this article, you'll learn what dust is, how to recognize a dust attack, and steps you can take to protect your wallet.
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In this article:
What is crypto dust?
Crypto dust refers to tiny amounts of cryptocurrency left in your wallet after a transaction or received in small amounts.
For example, when sending your entire balance, if the fee changes due to network conditions before it is confirmed, a small amount might be left behind as dust. This kind of dust is harmless and can be ignored. To learn what else you can do with it, visit: What can I do with the dust left over from sending?
On the other hand, dust sent to you in small amounts can be part of a dust attack. While usually harmless, it is good to take precautions to minimize potential risks. To learn more about these attacks, check out the below section: What is a dust attack?
Video tutorial: What is crypto dust?
How does Exodus handle dust in my wallet?
Exodus uses several strategies to help manage crypto dust and lessen its potential impact.
Even when an asset is disabled, dust amounts will stay in your wallet until they can be used in future transactions. For example, if you have a small amount of Ethereum dust, it will remain in your wallet until you receive more ETH, at which point it can be included in a transaction.
For Bitcoin, Exodus automatically optimizes transactions to help prevent dust. If your BTC balance includes amounts smaller than 0.00001501 BTC, these will be added to the transaction fee when you send BTC. This helps speed up confirmations and avoids leaving behind unusable amounts. To learn more, visit: How does Exodus calculate Bitcoin transaction fees?
To keep your wallet history clean, Exodus may also hide very small (dust) transactions from your transaction history.
To see your entire balance and transactions, you can look up your wallet address on a block explorer. For a guide on how to do this, visit: How do I check my balance on a block explorer?
What can I do with dust left over from sending?
If you have a small leftover balance (dust) after a transaction, here are a few options:
Leave it: You can simply ignore the dust. If you receive more of the same asset later, the dust may be included in a future transaction when you send funds. However, since transaction fees fluctuate, a tiny amount might still remain after sending.
Hide your balance: In Exodus, you can disable assets with a very low balance or minimum balance, such as 0.01 SOL or 1 XRP. However, please note that Bitcoin cannot be disabled.
Send to an exchange: Some centralized exchanges let you deposit small balances and convert them into other assets. However, you'll need enough to cover network fees when sending dust. In addition, if the token requires another asset for fees, the network fees might be higher than the amount you're trying to send.
What is a dust attack?
Dust attacks involve scammers sending tiny amounts of crypto to multiple wallets to conduct phishing attempts or compromise privacy.
Attackers typically have one of two goals:
For account-based assets, dust transactions might include malicious links leading to malware, phishing sites, or advertisements.
For UTXO-based assets, attackers might send dust to an address to analyze its movement and attempt to reveal the owner's other addresses.
What does a dust attack look like?
If you have received a small unexpected deposit of crypto to your wallet from an unknown sender, you may have been dusted.
Exodus might exclude these dust transactions from showing in your wallet; however, some may still appear in your transaction history.
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What do I do if I receive a dust attack?
If you have received a small amount of crypto from an unknown sender and suspect it is a dust attack, it may be possible to disable the asset.
In Exodus, assets with a very low balance or assets with only the minimum balance, such as 0.01 SOL or 1 XRP can be disabled. To learn more, visit: How do I enable or disable an asset?
If disabling is not an option, the following can help keep you secure.
What do I do if I receive a dust attack at my account-based address?
If one of your account-based addresses, such as Ethereum, Solana, or Tron, receives a dust attack, the attacker might have attached malicious links to the transaction details.
You can avoid potential harm by ignoring the transaction received in a dust attack. Never click or open any links, and do not interact with the transaction details, tokens, or addresses associated with the transaction.
What do I do if I receive a dust attack at my UTXO-based address?
UTXO-based assets like Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dogecoin use one or more UTXOs from your wallet when sending a transaction.
As the amount from a dust attack is an individual UTXO, it could combine with your other UTXOs unless you take precautions before making a new send transaction.
This dust UTXO does not reveal your identity or give the attacker access to any funds there. However, the attacker can then follow your funds sent to different addresses and change addresses to analyze the movement of the dust in an attempt to identify your other wallets and addresses.
To avoid this, you must isolate the dust before sending it. Currently, Exodus does not support sending or freezing individual UTXOs, so you must import your private key into a wallet that does.
Isolating dust is an advanced process requiring a third-party wallet and handling your private keys. For more information, you can contact Exodus Support by emailing [email protected] or visiting the messenger (purple chat icon in the bottom-right corner) to start a chat.
Be very careful with your private keys, because they control access to your funds. Never share them with anyone, and only import them into platforms that you trust 100%. If you choose to import your private keys into a third-party platform, you do so at your own risk. To find out more, check out this article from our Knowledge Base: How do I keep my money safe?