The hacker who orchestrated last year’s Poloniex attack has transferred 1,100 ETH, worth approximately $3.4 million, to Tornado Cash in an attempt to launder the stolen funds.
PeckShield, an on-chain data security platform, made the announcement early Tuesday morning, May 7.
In November 2023, a cyber hacker drained $100 million from the Poloniex exchange by compromising one of its hot wallets. Tornado Cash was one of the cryptocurrency mixing platforms used by the cybercriminals to hide the trail of stolen assets.
The attack was thought to be linked to a North Korean hacker group, the Lazarus Group, a notorious state-run hacking organization that has previously facilitated major cyber attacks, including a $600 million network breach on the Ronin sidechain.
Justin Sun, the CEO of Poloniex Exchange and the founder of the Tron blockchain, offered the hacker a 5% bounty, equivalent to $5 million, to reimburse the remaining 95% of the looted funds. Sun also gave the hacker a seven-day deadline to return the funds before pursuing legal action with law enforcement.
A few hours later, Sun announced in another post on X that the Poloniex team had successfully identified and frozen a portion of the looted assets associated with the cyber attacker’s wallet addresses. He went on to add that the losses were within “manageable limits,” assuring that the exchange’s operating revenue could cover them.
Tornado Cash has recently been linked to cyber hacking and fund looting incidents. One example is the $26 million Kronos Research hack, in which an anonymous hacker transferred 200 ETH, worth approximately $4 million, to Tornado Cash, according to PeckShield.
According to the report, the hacker then transferred 1,314 ETH to a new wallet address and laundered it using the cryptocurrency mixer. Kronos Research was also the victim of a network hack in November 2023, though it is unclear whether the two incidents are linked.
If you want to read more news articles like this, visit DeFi Planet and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and CoinMarketCap Community.
“Take control of your crypto portfolio with MARKETS PRO, DeFi Planet’s suite of analytics tools.”
