coindesk.com
An unidentified entity in the European Union (EU) may have lost more than $106 million in crypto from accounts held at multiple cryptocurrency exchanges on Sunday, according to a report from blockchain investigator ZachXBT.
The term “entity” can cover a range of organizations, such as a company, trading firm or investment fund. ZachXBT did not specify which.
In a Monday Telegram alert, ZachXBT said the suspected attacker withdrew funds in $USDC and $USDT, two U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins, before moving them through several cryptocurrencies and blockchains.
Over the following 24 hours, the attacker exchanged $USDC for ether ETH$2.252,29, transferred funds through instant-exchange services including WellWallet and Kyrrez, and converted some into the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero (XMR), using Wagyu, ZachXBT said.
Monero obscures transaction details, making it harder to follow stolen funds. Unlike $USDC and $USDT, which their issuers can freeze, ether and Monero cannot be frozen by a central issuer.
ZachXBT published 11 wallet addresses linked to the suspected theft but did not identify the victim or affected exchanges. He also did not explain how the attacker accessed the accounts. The reported losses have not been independently confirmed.
The investigator also ruled out one prominent suspect.
“While the illicit actor remains unidentified, I can say with a high degree of confidence it is NOT Lazarus Group based on multiple laundering indicators,” ZachXBT wrote.
The suspected theft comes days after hackers stole about $6.4 billion from Binance, an attack the FBI attributed to North Korea's TraderTraitor group, which is associated with Lazarus. BTCPay was also attacked following the Binance exploit as well as Mercado Bitcoin, which has apparently suffered a crypto theft worth about $40 million.
Neither the EU entity nor any of the exchanges involved has publicly confirmed the latest suspected theft.
