Onchain analyst claims that Crypto.com’s loss in the latest security breach might have been worth more than the reported $15 million.
Pseudonymous ErgoBTC, an on-chain analyst at Bitcoin (BTC) research firm OXT Research, claims that the Crypto.com security breach that was said to have resulted in the loss of 4.6K ETH ($15 million), may be worth up to $33 million.
Adding another 444 BTC to the previously reported 4.6k ETH from yesterday’s @cryptocom hack.
Still no acknowledgement of loss, despite large outflows from the custodial wallet into ETH’s Tornado Cash and a well known BTC tumbler (as detailed below). pic.twitter.com/GalJKM6bi9
— ∴Ergo∴ (@ErgoBTC) January 18, 2022
On Monday, reports emerged that Crypto.com had halted withdrawals “after a small number of users” experienced suspicious transactions on their accounts. The cryptocurrency exchange has since resumed withdrawals and confirmed that its users’ money was ‘safe,’ but reports emerged later that it had lost 4.6K ETH ($15 million) and was being laundered using Tornado Cash.
ErgoBTC tweeted on Tuesday suggesting that another 444 BTC ($18.5 million) had been stolen from Crypto.com’s payout wallet. ErgoBTC said that OXT Research discovered a suspicious transaction of 52.55 BTC ($2.18 million) from Crypto.com’s custodial wallet.
Following the transaction, “several hundred withdrawals” were made which were then combined into four outputs worth 67.75 BTC ($2.81 million) each, as per ErgoBTC. The four batches amounted to 271 BTC ($11.25 million), all of which were laundered via Bitcoin tumbler- a service that allows customers to combine several transactions and make it more difficult for investigators to trace Bitcoin transfers.
The Bitcoin tumbler allegedly utilized by the alleged perpetrators to wash the 271 BTC is a well-known tool employed by the North Korean cybercrime syndicate, Lazarus, according to ErgoBTC’s tweet.
According to ErgoBTC, the criminals behind the Crypto.com security breach also controlled another address holding 172.9 BTC ($7.25 million). Blockchair data reveals that the address received the funds at about the same time as the other transactions linked to the Crypto.com hack. However, as of the publishing of this article, the purported hacker has not transferred the funds through a bitcoin tumbling service yet.
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At the time of publishing Crypto.com is yet to acknowledge any losses. Cointelegraph reached out to Crypto.com for more details regarding its decision to halt withdrawals, but did not receive a response as of publishing time. This article will be updated pending new information.