- Some of the proceeds of last week’s Twitter hack have been sent to Bitcoin mixing services Wasabi Wallet and ChipMixer
- Scammers took over some high profile accounts and managed to con almost ₿13 out of unwitting holders
- The Twitter hack scammers are assumed to be trying to cash out their taking
Proceeds from last week’s Twitter hack have been sent to Bitcoin mixing services as the culprits attempt to cash out their ill-gotten gains. Blockchain analysis firms Chainalysis and Elliptic announced over the weekend that the funds stolen by the hackers, who gained access to high profile Twitter accounts last week to propagate a Bitcoin scam, were on the move, with the Wasabi mixer primarily used in an effort to hide the source of the coins.
Twitter Hack Funds Send to Wasabi Wallet
The Twitter hack that managed to scoop almost ₿13 before being shut down gained worldwide attention, not least because of the damage it could have caused. What the scammers did manage to get away with however has since been the subject of severe scrutiny from blockchain analytics services, which have been watching the receiving crypto wallets and waiting for movement. Finally late on Friday they got it, with Elliptic sharing an update:
Elliptic has uncovered that at 3.39am UTC this morning 2.89 bitcoins, accounting for 22% of the funds obtained by the Twitter hacker, were sent to an address that we strongly believe to be part of a Wasabi Wallet.
Wasabi Wallet is a mixing service, and the purpose of sending the Bitcoin here will have been to obscure its origins in the hope of avoiding the blacklists already put in place on exchanges, where the scammers will be looking to cash out.
Elliptic Tracking Wasabi Wallet Transactions
However, Elliptic claims to have the ability to track Wasabi Wallet transactions, suggesting that when the coins do finally make their inevitable way to an exchange, they might still be flagged:
…thanks to Elliptic’s unique capability to identify Wasabi Wallet addresses, exchanges can screen incoming funds for links to these wallets. Now they know that Wasabi Wallets have been used to help launder the proceeds of the Twitter attack, they can be on the alert for any customer deposits originating from this source.
It was later revealed that the Twitter hack scammers were also using another mixing service, ChipMixer, illustrating that they are taking steps to minimize the risks of being caught.
