A hacker responsible for the WazirX attack has transferred $57 million worth of stolen assets to two new cryptocurrency addresses. The hacker’s latest move involved transferring 16,350 Ethereum, valued over $57 million, to two new crypto wallets. According to blockchain security firm PeckShield’s July 22 post, the majority of the funds, worth over $54 million, were sent to an address starting with 0x58d.
What Are the New Developments in the WazirX Attack?
In a significant breach in 2024, an unknown hacker stole over $230 million from the Indian crypto exchange WazirX. The on-chain movement of the stolen assets might reveal crucial details about the hacker’s identity. To aid in tracking these stolen funds, WazirX has introduced two reward programs for on-chain investigators. The first offers up to $10,000 in Tether for actionable intelligence leading to the freezing of the stolen funds. The second, a white hat recovery reward, offers up to 10% of the recovered amount to ethical hackers.
A WazirX spokesperson mentioned that the cap for the white hat reward has been doubled to $23 million: “Following community feedback, the reward has been doubled to $23 million.” So far, 54 white hat hackers have registered for WazirX’s recovery program. Due to the lack of a direct method to freeze Ethereum, malicious actors often convert stolen funds into Ethereum to prepare them for laundering. This likely explains why the WazirX hacker recently converted $149 million worth of altcoins into Ethereum.
What is Happening in the Crypto Market?
The $230 million hack occurred during a particularly bad week for the crypto industry, which is struggling with malicious activities. Shortly after the WazirX attack, Rho Markets faced a breach where an unauthorized individual accessed its blockchain oracle, resulting in an $8 million theft of crypto assets. Fortunately, the Parchment-based liquidity layer and lending protocol announced that all funds were returned, and Rho Markets is back online. The protocol also identified that the loss was due to an exploit by a bot with maximum extractable value, which returned all the funds after gaining from the misconfigured price oracle.
Impact of the Security Breach
User-usable inferences:
- The hacker’s use of multiple addresses indicates attempts to obfuscate the fund’s trail.
- WazirX’s reward programs can incentivize community-driven efforts to trace and recover stolen assets.
- Converting various cryptocurrencies into Ethereum is a common tactic used by hackers to facilitate laundering.
- The rapid response from Rho Markets highlights the importance of timely communication and action in breach situations.
Lastly, players of the popular Telegram-based game Hamster Kombat have also been targeted by phishing attacks and fake airdrop events, aiming to steal player credentials and cryptocurrency wallets.
