Binance stolen funds laundering tracked to Chinese networks - The Cryptonomist
Chainalysis has tracked the laundering of stolen Binance funds to Chinese networks, including over-the-counter platforms, following the $6.3 billion theft.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars have reached Chinese networks—a small fraction of the stolen cryptocurrency, but evidence that the hackers are attempting to cash out. Nearly $1 billion in stolen assets has begun flowing into laundering channels.
Crypto companies have frozen about $3 billion, while roughly $2.42 billion in bitcoin and ether has shown little movement since the attack.
Laundering operation
Chainalysis data show that hackers routed approximately $500 million through TRON, spreading the cryptocurrency among more than 1,000 addresses before transferring it to blockchains including Ethereum and Bitcoin. The firm also identified a further phase of laundering involving Solana after funds moved through intermediary TRON wallets.
During the attack's first four days, the hackers conducted more than 40,000 transactions using roughly 12,000 wallets on 11 blockchains.
Stablecoin conversions
The hackers exchanged stolen stablecoins for cryptocurrencies whose issuers cannot freeze them, including ether. Elliptic put those conversions at roughly $786 million before Tether and Circle froze the remaining assets.
Elliptic also identified bitcoin mixing: by early Monday, November 2, about 28 bitcoin, valued at $2.2 million, had moved through 18 mixing transactions.
Binance response
Binance's response includes cooperation with law enforcement, blockchain analytics firms and stablecoin issuers. A spokesperson said those efforts focus on tracing the assets and securing freezes.
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