CEO Bybit: Part of the stolen funds cannot be tracked anymore

BYBIT General Ben Zhou said that about 28% of the $ 1.4 billion stolen as a result of a hacker attack on the exchange in March is now impossible to track, since the funds were converted to Bitcoin via Thorchain.

Ben Zhou published on the social network X updated investigation results, according to which about $ 960 million (69%) stolen funds remain tracking, and another $ 42 million (4%) were frozen due to the joint efforts of Tether, Binance and Huobi. However, about 28% of the stolen assets (approximately $ 391 million) were washed through a complex network of cryptocurrency mixers and inter -grid bridges, ultimately entering the peering (P2P) and OTC (OTC) platforms for converting into fiat currency.

The key element of the laundering process was the use of bitcoin mixers, such as Wasabi, Cryptomixer, Tornado Cash and Railgun, which hide traces of transactions, mixing illegal funds with legitimate. Zhou noted that Wasabi became the main mixer used by North Korean hackers – 944 BTC ($ 90.62 million) passed through it.

After mixing, the funds were subjected to multiple crosses in swaps through platforms such as Thorchain, Exch, Lombard, Lifi, Stargate and Sunswap. At the same time, Thorchain played a key role, providing hackers with 84.45% of the stolen ether (432 748 ETH worth $ 1.21 billion) at 10 003 BTC, which were then distributed 35,772 wallets – an average of 0.28 BTC per wallet. In addition, 531 BTC (equivalent to 18 206 ETH) were transferred back to the Ethereum blockchain through Thorchain, which further complicated tracking.

Earlier, TRM Labs researchers said that the largest criminal groups, including North Korean hackers and Mexican drug cartels, depend on Chinese underground banking syndicates that launder billions of dollars in cryptocurrency, turning digital money into fiat.

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