Dusting attack

A dusting attack is when someone sends tiny amounts of crypto, called "dust," to thousands of wallet addresses to try to link those wallets to real identities. It matters because the goal usually isn't theft but tracking: once you move that dust along with your other funds, analysts can trace transaction patterns and potentially connect your address to an exchange account or IP address, weakening your privacy. For example, in 2019 Samourai Wallet users received small amounts of BTC (fractions of a cent) sent to hundreds of addresses, prompting the wallet to add a "Do Not Spend" feature so recipients could flag and ignore the dust instead of accidentally spending it and giving away clues about their holdings.