An unidentified European Union entity may have lost more than $106 million from accounts at multiple cryptocurrency exchanges, according to blockchain investigator ZachXBT. The losses have not been independently confirmed, and the victim, the affected exchanges and the attacker's method of access remain unknown.
An unidentified entity in the European Union may have lost more than $106 million in crypto from accounts held at multiple cryptocurrency exchanges on Sunday, according to ZachXBT. ZachXBT did not specify whether the entity is a company, trading firm or investment fund.
How the funds moved
In a Monday Telegram alert, ZachXBT said the suspected attacker withdrew funds in USDC and USDT, two U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins, before moving them through several cryptocurrencies and blockchains.
Over the following 24 hours, the attacker exchanged USDC for ether and transferred funds through instant-exchange services including WellWallet and Kyrrez, ZachXBT said. The attacker also converted some into the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero, using Wagyu.
Monero obscures transaction details, making it harder to follow stolen funds. Unlike USDC and USDT, which their issuers can freeze, ether and Monero cannot be frozen by a central issuer.
Lazarus Group ruled out
ZachXBT published 11 wallet addresses linked to the suspected theft but did not identify the victim or the affected exchanges. He also did not explain how the attacker accessed the accounts.
He did rule out one prominent suspect. According to ZachXBT: "I can say with a high degree of confidence it is NOT Lazarus Group" based on multiple laundering indicators.
The suspected theft comes days after hackers stole about $6.4 billion from Binance, an attack the FBI attributed to North Korea's TraderTraitor group, which is associated with Lazarus. Mercado Bitcoin has also apparently suffered a crypto theft worth about $40 million.
Neither the EU entity nor any of the exchanges involved has publicly confirmed the latest suspected theft.
Source: CoinDesk
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