One of the biggest fraud cases of 2026 in the cryptocurrency world has come to light. On-chain researcher ZachXBT publicly announced a large-scale hardware wallet social engineering attack that took place on January 11, 2026.
According to information shared by ZachXBT, on January 11th at approximately 02:00 (UTC+3), a victim lost over $282 million worth of Bitcoin and Litecoin as a result of a social engineering attack carried out via a hardware wallet. The attacker converted the stolen assets to Monero through multiple “instant exchange” platforms in an attempt to cover their tracks.
Hacker’s Monero Purchase Causes $XMR Price to Rise
These intense conversion transactions caused a sharp and sudden surge in the price of Monero ($XMR) in a short period of time. According to analysts, transactions of this magnitude, carried out during times of limited market liquidity, can lead to instantaneous shocks in the $XMR price.
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