Given the endless waterfall of garbage that arrives on Steam, it might seem like you can upload and sell absolutely anything on the storefront. However, there are meant to be some verification checks in place to prevent the most egregious examples of nefarious content from reaching the platform—it’s just it doesn’t always work. Hence BlockBlasters, a Trojan-Horse 2D platformer that released as an innocent game, before being updated such that it could start draining players’ crypto wallets. And tragically, this was discovered during a livestream fundraiser for a streamer with stage-4 cancer.
As reported by Bleeping Computer, BlockBlasters went on sale on July 30 as yet another 2D platformer on Valve’s industry-dominating PC store. But a month later, on August 30, the game was updated with a couple of zip files, which appear to have contained malware that allowed the game to empty players’ crypto wallets.
The “game” was obviously released as free, to tempt as many people into taking a look as possible. However, according to SteamDB it seems BlockBlasters only managed to attract a very small number of players. Estimates show it as having had under 7,000 downloads, while concurrent player counts never exceeded a desultory eight. That would have sucked if you’d poured your heart into a platformer, but clearly that wasn’t the plan here from first-time (and presumably last-time) developers Genesis Interactive.
It was only when streamer Raivo Plavnieks (RastalandTV) was running a fundraiser to help raise money to treat his stage-4 sarcoma that the cruel nature of the malware became apparent. Someone tuned in and encouraged crypto enthusiast Plavnieks to download BlockBlasters, when the extremely sick man watched $32,000 drain from his funds. “My life was saved for whole 24 hours,” the streamer wrote on X, “untill someone tuned in my stream and got me to download verified game on @Steam.” (Please be warned that the video clip embedded in the post is particularly upsetting.)
For anybody wondering what is going on with $CANCER live stream… my life was saved for whole 24 hours untill someone tuned in my stream and got me to download verified game on @Steam
After this I was drained for over 32,000$ USD of my creator fees earned on @pumpdotfun and… pic.twitter.com/8YH4njd46E— rastaland.TV (@rastalandTV) September 21, 2025
“I can’t breathe, I can’t think,” the Latvian gamer added. “im completely lost on what is going to happen next, can’t shake the feeling that it is my fault that I might end up on street again or not have anything to eat in few days.”
However, according to Bleeping Computer, what happened next is a rallying from other crypto types, with crypto influencer Alex Becker posting to X to say he’d sent Plavnieks $32,500 to cover the losses.
I have sent $32,500 to cover this to your new safe wallet. Best of luck to you my friend. <3.@rastalandTV
Receipt below.
— Alex Becker 🍊🏆🥇 (@ZssBecker) September 21, 2025
BlockBlasters was removed from Steam on September 21, the same day as the stream, presumably after a flood of resulting reports. However, it shows serious weaknesses in Valve’s store that malware can so easily be added to games. Earlier this year a web3 “game” called PirateFi was stealing Steam accounts, and it’s just another of many examples.
As a rule, the safest option is to take no part in the entire crypto scam in the first place. Put your money in a bank, or hide it under your mattress, but not in the criminal underworld that is cryptocurrency. And if anything is marked as “web3,” avoid it like the plague it is.
