In a latest development, the hacker behind the Poloniex attack has moved 1,100 ETH ($3.4 million) via U.S U.S.-sanctioned cryptocurrency mixer, Tornado Cash. This was confirmed in on-chain data on X by security analytic firm, PeckShield.
Recall that the attack was carried out on one of Poloniex hot wallets in 2023, leading to the loss of over $100 million in users’ funds. Nearly six month later, the attacker has started to move the funds.
Over the years, hackers have leveraged Tornado Cash to siphon huge amounts of funds stolen from crypto firms. Tornado Cash is an open-source cryptocurrency mixer that operates on networks compatible with the EVM. Sending funds to this mixing service makes it untraceable.
After the attack, the founder of Poloniex, Justin Sun offered $5 Million bounty to the attackers to return the stolen funds. Meanwhile, there are indications that the hack was carried out by the infamous North Korean Lazarus group. In recent years, the group has been notorious for carrying out high prolific attacks.
Poloniex has a healthy financial position despite attack – Justin Sun
Despite the hack, Sun insisted that the exchange has a healthy financial position and that affected users would be reimbursed fully. Also, Poloniex explored possible partnerships with other exchanges to facilitate quick recovery of the funds.
Various security experts gave insight into how the exchange was attacked. One of the firms, CertiK noted that the hack occurred due to the breach of a private key. Then, CertiK revealed that the stolen funds were transferred to four external addresses.
Scopescan was also one of the first blockchain analytic platforms to notice the attack. In their report, the firm revealed that the hacker transferred $60 million from Poloniex wallet to another wallet, “0x0A59” within 40 minutes. In addition, the report indicated that the hacker purchased 206.74 TRX worth $22.8 million with the stolen funds.
Prior to the hack, the exchange had earlier launched its futures grid trading pool. According to Poloniex, the tool would allow users to deploy the grid bot on a wide range of futures perpetual contracts. Similarly, the grid pool was designed to allow users buy low and trade high, thereby maximizing profits admist crypto volatility.
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