On April 30, the respected blockchain monitoring entity PeckShieldAlert revealed that a wallet linked to the infamous Poloniex hack had moved assets worth about $32 million to three separate addresses. This action seems to be an effort to obscure the source of the illicit funds.
Hacker Persistently Attempts to Hide Poloniex Funds
PeckShieldAlert disclosed that the most significant transaction made by the hacker targeting Poloniex involved moving 486.62 BTC, which is roughly $30.8 million, to a singular address. Additionally, two lesser sums of 10 BTC and 5 BTC, estimated to be worth about $623,000 and $316,000, respectively, were transferred to different wallet addresses.
The event originated from a breach in Poloniex’s hot-wallet system on November 10, leading to a financial hit exceeding $33 million. PeckShieldAlert was the first to spot and report the security issue to the exchange. Subsequent analysis by on-chain experts, notably Tom Wan, uncovered that the hacker had pilfered various cryptocurrencies, with ETH and LINK being among the stolen assets, valued at $10 million and $2.4 million, respectively.
Following this, analysts from Lookonchain revealed that the individual behind the Poloniex theft tried to clean the illicit proceeds by converting them into ETH and TRX. On November 18th, 2023, PeckShieldAlert reported that Poloniex had identified the hacker and was working with authorities in China, Russia, and the United States. Additionally, a reward of $10 million was proposed to the offender in return for the hijacked assets, acting as a white-hat incentive.
Attempts by Poloniex to retrieve the stolen assets have yet to bear fruit. The recent movement of BTC by the hacker is worrisome, as it suggests efforts to conceal their transaction history, potentially aiming to cash out the funds at a later stage.
A recent study by blockchain security company Immunefi has revealed that, between January and February 2024, the crypto sector suffered losses exceeding $200 million due to 32 different hacking and rug pull events. This marks a 15.4% rise from the previous year during the same timeframe, which saw thefts amounting to $173 million.