Bybit CEO: Some of the stolen funds are no longer traceable

Bybit CEO Ben Zhou said that about 28% of the $1.4 billion stolen in a hack of the exchange in March is now untraceable because the funds were converted to bitcoin through THORChain.

Ben Zhou posted an updated investigation on X, revealing that about $960 million (69%) of the stolen funds remain traceable, while another $42 million (4%) was frozen thanks to the combined efforts of Tether, Binance, and Huobi. However, about 28% of the stolen assets (approximately $391 million) were laundered through a complex network of crypto mixers and cross-chain bridges, eventually ending up on peer-to-peer (P2P) and over-the-counter (OTC) platforms for conversion into fiat currency.

A key element of the laundering process was the use of Bitcoin mixers such as Wasabi, CryptoMixer, Tornado Cash, and Railgun, which hide the traces of transactions by mixing illicit funds with legitimate ones. Zhou noted that Wasabi was the main mixer used by North Korean hackers, with 944 BTC ($90.62 million) passing through it.

After mixing, the funds were subjected to multiple cross-chain swaps via platforms such as THORChain, eXch, Lombard, LiFi, Stargate, and SunSwap. THORChain played a key role in this, allowing the hackers to convert 84.45% of the stolen Ether (432,748 ETH worth $1.21 billion) into 10,003 BTC, which were then distributed across 35,772 wallets, an average of 0.28 BTC per wallet. Additionally, 531 BTC (equivalent to 18,206 ETH) were transferred back to the Ethereum blockchain via THORChain, making it even more difficult to track.

Researchers at TRM Labs have previously reported that major criminal groups, including North Korean hackers and Mexican drug cartels, rely on Chinese underground banking syndicates to launder billions of dollars in cryptocurrency by converting digital money into fiat.

Источник: cryptocurrency.tech