The hacker who stole hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of cryptassets form Singapore-based crypto exchange KuCoin have started moving millions in ERC-20 tokens and XRP to cash out using various methods.
Data from the Ethereum blockchain, spotted by Whale Alert, shows that the hacker, who managed to steal an estimated over $200 million from the exchange, initially moved small amounts of the token that powers the decentralized derivatives platform Synthetix, SNX, to Uniswap.
Then, the hacker moved $1.1 million worth of the cryptocurrency to the decentralized exchange, presumably to cash out. It also moved other ERC-20 tokens to the trading platform, which as a decentralized exchange does not enforce identity checks.
While the hacker can move and exchange funds using Uniswap, transactions made on the decentralized exchange are recorded on the Ethereum blockchain and visible to the public, meaning they are likely not enough to launder the funds.
Moreover, several small cryptocurrency projects have either frozen or invalidated the funds the hacker managed to steal from KuCoin in a bid to stop them from laundering the funds. Ocean Protocol, for example, revealed 21 million tokens worth over $8.6 million were stolen, and that as a first measure it paused the OCEAN contract.
Data from Whale Alert also shows the hacker move 37.35 million XRP tokens, worth over $9 million, to several addresses, some of them belonging to little-known cryptocurrency exchanges.
Hacker Seemingly Sent Funds to Defunct Exchange’s Address
Some of the transactions show Byex received $11,000 in XRP from the hacker in an initial transaction, before receiving another $66,600. At press time, the hacker is still moving funds to the Byex address.
Notably, Byex shut down in June of this year over the crypto market’s “condition,” as it was “no longer economically viable” for the exchange to keep on running. Its last posts on social media were asking customers to withdraw their funds before these were disabled.
CryptoGlobe reached out to a former admin of the Byex exchange, who told us that the exchange has been shut down and is no longer managed by anyone. When asked whether it could be a former manager managing the XRP address, the former Byex Admin, Ally Ssa, said “we are not sure as the platform [has] been closed down, all the staff been laid off.”
Another smaller cryptocurrency exchange, HotBit, received funds from the KuCoin hacker. When contacted by CryptoGlobe, a representative said he “already forwarded the issue to relevant colleagues.”
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