Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao via a tweet today described how a collective effort stopped hackers from laundering stolen funds from Harmony One. According to Changpeng Zhao, Binance detected an attempt by hackers to manoeuvre their loot through Huobi.
Swinging into action, Binance informed Huobi of the illicit transaction and then freeze the funds deposited into the cryptocurrency exchange by the hackers. As revealed, Changpeng Zhao submitted that the recovered loot is about 121 BTC which amounts to $2.5 million according to market data provided by CoinCodex.
The Binance boss described how the hackers attempted to move the stolen assets through his cryptocurrency exchange. The swift intervention of the Binance team repelled their attempts, thus, seizing the assets. More so, Justin Sun, a member of Huobi Global’s advisory board, in a separate tweet confirmed how the collaborative effort intercepted the stolen assets.
However, on-chain security specialist, ZachXBT earlier disclose in a tweet that hackers moved 41,000 ETH worth $64 million last weekend. The crypto detective revealed that the hackers behind the exploit on Harmony’s Horizon Bridge initiated the transaction.
Describing the nature of the transaction, ZachXBT posited that the hackers deposited the stolen assets into three different exchanges. Though the on-chain security specialist didn’t provide the names of the exchanges in question.
How Hackers were on rampage in 2022
On June 24, 2022, Harmony’s Horizon Bridge was looted as part of the attack spree of hackers on DeFi projects last year. The protocol suffered a loss of $100 million to the attack, therefore birthing questions from the crypto community about how the attack took place. The hackers made their loot in 11 different transactions in less than 20 minutes.
A few days after the attack, investigations pointed to North Korean hacking team, Lazarus Group as the culprit behind the attack. Additionally, in 2022, the crypto community witnessed numerous hacks that affected different projects. According to Chainalysis, Hackers stole about $3 billion from DeFi projects within 10 months in 2022.
Contributing to this outrageous figure is the hack on Axie Infinity’s Ronin Bridge. Recall that in March 2022, the sidechain, powering the Axie Infinity game endured an attack which resulted in a loss of about $650 million. The attack on the Ronin Bridge remains the biggest loot occasioned by hackers on a DeFi project.
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