The hacker behind the WazirX hack is now close to finishing moving the stolen $230 million through laundering.
This money was first transferred to ETH then passed through Tornado Cash.
Case demonstrates the problems of tracing and recovering the funds in decentralized finance.
The WazirX hacker is now in the final stage of a laundering spree involving $230 million in siphoned funds. As stated in the latest update, the hacker cashed out 3,792 ETH ($9.93 Million) to a newly created wallet having the address “0xa6e.” This transfer occurred an hour ago, which is at the last stage of the complex process of money laundering that takes several weeks.
https://twitter.com/spotonchain/status/1838851740860584306
This stolen Ethereum is now being laundered through Tornado Cash, a decentralized platform often used to conceal the source and destination of transactions in cryptocurrencies.The first attack was carried out on July 18, 2024. A cybercriminal breached WazirX, an Indian crypto exchange service that was hacked and stole $230 million worth of cryptocurrencies.
Subsequently, approximately 75% of the pilfered cash was converted to 61,700 ETH with a view to anonymise the transactions. Starting from September 3, the hacker started branching the funds into new wallets and diversifying them, regarding the whole process as a sequence of stages, hence, distancing the money from the hack.
Funds Laundering and Complexity of Tracking
In the last 22 days, the hacker has been consistently withdrawing Ethereum, moving them to other wallets and washing them through Tornado Cash, which is infamous for its mixing services. This unstructured mechanism enables a user to transfer/receive Ethereum with the anonymity of the involved wallet addresses, thus making it a darling of such individuals as fraudsters, defaulters among others.
The case shows how law enforcement operates in the context of Decentralized Finance – or, in short, DeFi. The ability to use services like Tornado Cash and the establishment of many wallets, makes it almost impossible to track the money once they have been introduced to the money laundering system. Furthermore, DeFi platforms are situated outside the scope of the conventional financial regulation and all the signs of illicit activities cannot be addressed even in the case of a suspicion.
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