My friend had 70k stolen.
That’s fucked up. I dug deeper into keyloggers, and here’s the deal: if your Windows 10/11 system is compromised, even running a fresh, legit copy of Windows or Unix inside a VM won’t save you. Keystrokes still pass through the host first:
Keyboard hardware → host OS drivers → VMware process → guest VM OS.
Keyloggers are notoriously hard to detect or remove. The safest setup is a dedicated computer with a clean, legitimate copy of Windows, Unix, or macOS plus antivirus installed — and nothing else. No browsing, no torrenting movies, no pirated softwarez, no random forums. That machine is only for connecting to exchanges. Keep it shut down when not in use, but update it regularly.
Hardware wallets (Ledger, Trezor, Coldcard, etc.) handle this better. The seed phrase, PIN, and transaction approvals happen on the device itself, not on your host PC. That means the wallet protects you from host-level keyloggers — as long as you never type your seed on the compromised computer.
If you ever type your recovery phrase into Notepad, an “ewallet” app, or a web form on that compromised machine, it’s over. A keylogger, clipboard logger, or file stealer can snatch it instantly. With your seed phrase, an attacker can restore your wallet anywhere. Game over.
