- WazirX’s hacker has moved $33 million of the loot to crypto mixer Tornado Cash
- The hacker has been distributing the illicit funds to multiple wallets since July
- The hacker moved the $33 million in batches of around $13 million in three days
The hacker of Indian crypto exchange WazirX has moved roughly $33 million of the $235 million he had siphoned from the platform to Tornado Cash. Although the hacker has been moving the loot to new wallets since July, the amount sent to the crypto-mixing platform was moved this week in batches of roughly $12 million. Blockchain analytics platform Arkham disclosed that the hacker still holds slightly above $50 million of the loot, an indication that he doesn’t plan to return the loot even for a bounty.
WazirX Blames Liminal and Binance
In July, the hacker moved $57 million into new wallets with one of the wallets holding $54 million. The hacker has over the months not indicated any intention to return the funds despite WazirX increasing the bounty to $23 million.
🚨UPDATE🚨@WazirXIndia hacker just transferred another 5K $ETH (~$12M) to a new address: https://t.co/BDjfNt0Keb and already started depositing to @TornadoCash
Want to keep your company off our alerts radar? Learn how to secure your assets: Book a Demo 🚀… https://t.co/5G3lerRnbX pic.twitter.com/Z9Su2tkWsR— 🚨 Cyvers Alerts 🚨 (@CyversAlerts) September 19, 2024
The latest movement of funds to the crypto mixer comes as some in the crypto community suspect that the hack was an inside job while blockchain sleuths link the incident to North Korean-based malicious actors.
WazirX has resulted in blaming other entities like crypto custodian Liminal and Binance. The two entities have however distanced themselves from the hack saying that the exchange wants to divert attention from its failures.
WazirX Failed to Respond on Time
Blockchain security firm Cyvers was among the first to detect the hack and reached out to the exchange but the exchange didn’t respond on time, something that may have contributed to the huge loss.
🚨ALERT🚨Hey @WazirXIndia, Our system has detected multiple suspicious transactions involving your Safe Multisig wallet on the #ETH network.
A total of $234.9M of your funds have been moved to a new address. Each transaction’s caller is funded by @TornadoCash.
The suspicious… pic.twitter.com/4sajAwd4Hb
— 🚨 Cyvers Alerts 🚨 (@CyversAlerts) July 18, 2024
The hacker used Tornado Cash despite the platform being sanctioned by the United States and one of its co-founder sentenced to five years. The New York Federal Reserve believes that the sanctions have reduced the platform’s usage in moving illicit funds.
With the hacker turning to Tornado Cash, it’s highly unlikely that WazirX will recover the funds.
