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$282 Million Lost in Hardware Wallet Scam as Thief Converts Bitcoin and Litecoin to Monero

Investigators attribute the breach to a stolen recovery phrase obtained through impersonation.

Overview

  • The theft occurred on January 10 and drained roughly 1,459 BTC and about 2.05 million LTC from a single holder, according to ZachXBT.
  • Large portions of the funds were converted into Monero via instant exchanges, while Bitcoin was bridged through THORChain to Ethereum, Ripple and Litecoin to obfuscate flows.
  • Monero’s price surged to a new all-time high near $800 as the conversion pressure intensified, before later pulling back.
  • Cybersecurity firm ZeroShadow said roughly $700,000 in assets were flagged and frozen before full conversion into privacy coins.
  • ZachXBT linked the incident to a broader early-January wallet-draining campaign and reported no indicators of state-backed involvement.