Florida man arrested for stealing more than $200,000 in crypto using Steam malware

Authorities have arrested a Florida man suspected of stealing at least $220,000 in crypto through a Steam game containing malware, as previously reported. and local news Local10. In complaintAuthorities accuse 21-year-old Zyaire Wilkins and his associates of launching eight games embedded with malware from May 2024 to February 2026, allowing them to destroy 8,000 devices and gain access to 80 crypto wallets.

While the complaint doesn’t specifically state that the game was uploaded to Steam, it likely refers to Valve’s gaming platform. As mentioned Local10and The FBI called to find out about the victims in the “Steam malware investigation” which includes the games listed in the cases, incl BlockBlasters, Chemistry, Dashverse/DashFPS, Lamp, month, PirateFiand We are now.

Last year, several shops he said again on Steam’s removal of some of these cryptostealing games, such as Blockblasters, which took more than $150,000 from victimsincluding a streamer to raise money for their cancer. The lawsuit is also being filed in Washington, D.C., where Valve is based. Valve did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The complaint states that Wilkins and his co-conspirators “sold video games embedded with malware on social media and social networking sites, such as Discord, Telegram, X/Twitter, and LinkedIn, and encouraged others to download the game.” From there, authorities say the perpetrators used malware to steal victims’ private information and withdraw their crypto wallets.

Federal agents linked Wilkins to the case after receiving his crypto wallet address in messages with an accomplice. They traced the crypto address to an account on Bitrefill, a site where users can buy gift cards with crypto. An account linked to Wilkins purchased more than 150 gift cards, including Uber Eats, to which authorities revealed her phone number, and eventually, address.

Wilkins was arrested on July 14 and charged with conspiracy to obtain computer information for private gain.