Federal authorities arrested a Florida man on July 14, 2026, for allegedly stealing at least $220,000 in cryptocurrency by distributing malware through games published on Steam, Valve’s gaming platform.
Zyaire Wilkins, 21, and unnamed co-conspirators are accused of launching eight malware-embedded games between approximately May 2024 and February 2026. According to the federal complaint, the scheme infected around 8,000 devices and gave the conspirators access to 80 cryptocurrency wallets. The games named in the lawsuit include BlockBlasters, Chemia, Dashverse/DashFPS, Lampy, Lunara, PirateFi, and Tokenova.
Wilkins and his co-conspirators allegedly promoted the games across social media and messaging platforms including Discord, Telegram, X/Twitter, and LinkedIn, encouraging users to download them. Once installed, the malware was used to steal victims’ private information and drain their crypto wallets. One of the games, Blockblasters, alone accounted for more than $150,000 in stolen funds — including money taken from a streamer who had been raising donations for cancer treatment.
Investigators linked Wilkins to the scheme after obtaining his cryptocurrency wallet address from messages with an alleged co-conspirator. Authorities traced the address to an account on Bitrefill, a service that allows users to buy gift cards with cryptocurrency. That account had purchased more than 150 gift cards, including ones for Uber Eats, which led investigators to a phone number and eventually a physical address.
The lawsuit was filed in a Washington state court, where Valve is headquartered. Valve did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Wilkins has been charged with conspiracy to obtain information by computer for private financial gain.
The case may suggest risks for users downloading games from platforms where developer vetting is limited, though the complaint does not specify how the games passed through Steam’s publishing process.
Source: The Verge