Kronos Research Hacker Launders $4M Through Tornado Cash
Kronos Analysis Hacker Launders $4M Through Tornado Cash
The Hacker who exploited Kronos Analysis for $25 million in November 2023 has moved $4 Million of Ethereum thru Tornado Cash, attempting to launder the funds.
The quantitative trading agency Kronos Analysis used to be exploited In November 2023 after hackers accessed its compromised API keys. The agency first denied any lack of funds at some stage in its early announcement on x.
Then again, on-chain investigator ZachXBT later revealed that 12,800 ETH price $25 million used to be stolen through an X thread. The funds have faith been transferred to six diversified cryptocurrency wallet addresses.
Kronos Capital halted its trading companies to analyze the loss, however the funds have faith been under no instances recovered. They remained dormant for 6 months till one amongst the six wallets began transferring funds to Tornado Cash on May perchance furthermore fair seventh.
The crypto analytics agency PeckShield raised an alert in terms of the transfer of funds on X. They cited the transfer to Tornado Cash as an indication that the Kronos Analysis hacker used to be attempting to launder the stolen funds.
#PeckShieldAlert #KronosResearch Hacker 5: The labeled contend with has transferred 200 $ETH to #Tornadocash and roughly 1,314 $ETH (price round $4 million) to a brand unique contend with 0x164A…D5c4, and began laundering them through #Tornadocash#KronosResearch used to be hacked in mid-November… pic.twitter.com/7YOVuNpebd
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) May perchance furthermore fair 7, 2024
How the Kronos Analysis Hacker Laundered the Funds
Tornado Cash is an start-source cryptocurrency tumbler, usually incessantly called a “crypto mixer.” This tool obscures the plod of crypto transactions, making it extremely sophisticated to earn out the long-established source of the funds.
Though created as a privateness tool, hackers usually command these mixing companies to launder stolen funds through decentralized alternate platforms.
The wallet first transferred 200 $ETH to Tornado Cash, then sent an additional 1,314 $ETH price $4 million to a brand unique contend with, as per Etherscan recordsdata.
From this unique wallet, the Kronos Analysis hacker made 10 transactions of 100 ETH to Tornado Cash, rendering the stolen Ethereum untraceable.
Crypto Mixers Face Backlash From Governments
Crypto mixers have faith viewed principal adoption currently. In October 2023 over $77 million in resources have faith been processed thru Tornado Cash contracts.
Then again, the majority of this adoption has been with illicit resources. Over the years, hackers have faith chosen crypto-mixing companies over centralized exchanges as as soon as they’re identified, addresses are blocked by exchanges.
Tornado Cash bypasses this, as a formulation to legitimize their source of funds by doing away with connections to a hacked wallet or illicit crypto command.
Nearly the full top multi-million dollar crypto hacks have faith utilized Tornado Cash to launder the proceeds, as per an Arkham Intelligence legend.
Something that prompted the US Treasury to impose sanctions on Tornado Cash in August 2022. In consequence, its founders have faith been charged with money laundering and sanctions violations a year later.
Whereas opinions internal the crypto community vary in terms of the adoption of privateness instruments, there is a consensus against the persecution of developers fully for growing an application.
Source : cryptonews.com