Poloniex Hacker Transfers $53.5M in ETH via Tornado Cash

The cryptocurrency movement stolen from the November 2023 Poloniex hack is far from over. Although Poloniex claimed to have identified the attacker weeks later and offered a $10 million reward, the stolen funds were never returned.

In the latest development, PeckShield, a blockchain research firm, found that more than half of the stolen funds were moved through Tornado Cash.

More than six months after the hack, the bad actor moved 17.8K ETH, worth approximately $53.5 million from six different wallets, to a single address of the controversial coin mixer, Tornado Cash.

#PeckShieldAlert The #Polish The hacker has already sent a total of 17.8K $ETH (approximate value of 53.5 million dollars) a #TornadoCash pic.twitter.com/gpkIYVA2fZ

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) May 14, 2024

The latest fund transfer comes a week after the hacker moved more than 1,100 ETH in 11 batches of 100 ETH to the sanctioned crypto mixer over a two-hour period.

Poloniex was hacked in November 2023 after its private keys were compromised by malicious actors.

The attackers, suspected to be the notorious Lazarus Group associated with the North Korean government, stole about $126 million from the exchange’s wallets.

Poloniex later stated that its team identified and froze a portion of the assets linked to the hacker’s addresses to prevent further losses. They also mentioned that the losses are within “manageable limits” and that their operating income can cover them.

TRON founder Justin Sun, who bought Poloniex in 2019, pledged to fully compensate affected users of the exchange while claiming that it is financially stable and looking for partnerships with other exchanges to recover lost funds.

SPECIAL OFFER (Sponsored) Binance Free $600 (Exclusive to CryptoPotato): Use this link to register a new account and receive an exclusive welcome offer of $600 to Binance (full details).

LIMITED OFFER 2024 for CryptoPotato readers on Bybit – Use this link to register and open a $500 BTC-USDT position on Bybit Exchange for free!