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Crypto Thief Drains $282 Million From Hardware Wallet, Launders Through THORChain and Monero

Investigators say the loss resulted from a social engineering seed-phrase disclosure rather than any software flaw.

Overview

  • A single victim lost roughly 1,459 BTC and about 2.05 million LTC on Jan. 10 after divulging a recovery phrase, according to blockchain investigator ZachXBT.
  • Large portions of the haul were converted into Monero via instant exchanges, coinciding with a brief XMR surge to a new all-time high near $800 before a pullback.
  • Parts of the Bitcoin flow were bridged through THORChain to Ethereum, Ripple and Litecoin to complicate tracing across networks.
  • Cybersecurity firm ZeroShadow reported about $700,000 in assets were flagged and frozen before being fully converted into privacy-focused coins.
  • ZachXBT linked the theft to a wider early-January wallet-draining campaign and said there are no indicators of state-backed involvement.