USDC and USDT stolen, ETH swapped, XMR obscured: Inside a $106M EU hack - Cryptonews.net
A suspected theft of more than $106 million from a European Union-based entity has triggered a new wave of concern in the crypto community.
On November 1, an unidentified attacker drained funds from accounts held across multiple centralized cryptocurrency exchanges.
The suspected stolen assets included Circle's USDC and Tether's USDT.
The attacker then moved the funds through a series of transactions to make them harder to trace and potentially recover.
Laundering techniques
The illicit actor initially swapped the stolen USDC and USDT into Ethereum.
The attacker then transferred the ETH to instant cryptocurrency exchanges, including WellWallet and Kyrrex.
The wrongdoer subsequently converted the ETH into Monero, a privacy-focused cryptocurrency that uses technologies to conceal transaction details.
The suspected hacker also reportedly bridged assets across multiple blockchain networks, adding another layer of complexity to the ongoing investigation.
Suspect identity
Despite the scale of the incident and the laundering techniques involved, ZachXBT stated that the illicit actor remains unidentified.
While the illicit actor remains unidentified, I can say with a high degree of confidence it is NOT Lazarus Group based on multiple laundering indicators.
Regulatory context
The European Banking Authority has recognized USDC as the EU's first major e-money token under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework.
The European Securities and Markets Authority has directed national regulators to restrict services involving non-MiCA-compliant stablecoins to sell-only, conversion, transfer, and withdrawal functions.
Related
