In a strategic move following the $235 million exploit of cryptocurrency exchange WazirX, the hacker has converted approximately $150 million worth of various altcoins to Ethereum (ETH). This conversion, occurring between July 18-19, is likely an attempt to prevent the stolen funds from being frozen or blacklisted.
Blockchain analytics firm Spot On Chain reported that the conversion included $90.2 million in Shiba Inu (SHIB), $10.2 million in Polygon (MATIC), and $7.5 million in Pepe (PEPE). This maneuver has increased the total amount of stolen funds held in ETH from $52 million to $201 million.
The total $ETH holding of #WazirX exploiter has risen to 59,097 $ETH ($201M)!
Among these tokens:
15,298 $ETH ($52M) was stolen directly from the exchange;
43,799 $ETH ($149M) was acquired by dumping various assets, notably 5.43T $SHIB ($90.2M), 20.5M $MATIC ($10.2M),… https://t.co/v1sGzL6m7r pic.twitter.com/x23kGBsqyd— Spot On Chain (@spotonchain) July 19, 2024
Spot On Chain suggested several reasons for this shift to ETH. Its high liquidity and inability to be easily blacklisted make it an attractive option for hackers.
Unlike some ERC-20 tokens, ETH lacks a contract function for blacklisting addresses, providing an additional tool for recovering stolen funds. Furthermore, ETH can be more easily laundered through exchanges and mixer protocols, and its value is generally more stable compared to altcoins.
The hack has impacted the crypto market, with SHIB experiencing a 7% decline since the incident. Meanwhile, ETH’s price has remained relatively stable, dropping only 0.1%.
WazirX, the India-based exchange targeted in this attack, has halted withdrawals and is working to recover the stolen funds. The breach resulted in the loss of nearly half of the exchange’s cryptocurrency reserves.
Blockchain forensics firm Elliptic suggests that patterns in the attack indicate the possible involvement of North Korean hackers. The hacker still holds approximately $12 million in various altcoins, including Chromia (CHR), Celer Network (CELR), Frontier (FRONT), and Ooki (OOKI).
The report follows a crypto trader losing over $69 million in an address poisoning scheme in early May. Address poisoning is a type of fraud where scammers create fake accounts that mimic their victim’s online crypto address.
They then send a small amount of currency to the victim, hoping that the victim will later accidentally send money to the fake address.
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