A September 2023 phishing-associated account transferred $10 million in Ether to the cryptocurrency mixing protocol Tornado Cash.
A blockchain security firm, CertiK, identified an account associated with the $24 million breach on March 21 while transmitting 3,700 ETH to Tornado Cash. Phishing on September 6, 2023, resulted in the theft of funds from a cryptocurrency colossus.
The investor suffered a $24 million loss on ETH staked with the liquid staking provider Rocket Pool. Two transactions comprised the breach: one removed 4,851 rETH from the cryptocurrency colossus, while the other removed 9,579 stETH.
Scam Sniffer, an anti-scam initiative, reported that the hacker obtained token approvals by having the victim approve an “Increase Allowance” transaction. With the owners’ consent, the functionality permits third parties to expend ERC-20 tokens of others via smart contracts.
Much has been said about the token allowances feature in the cryptocurrency community, with some users being cautioned by experts that developers may be able to use malicious smart contracts to conduct schemes.
PeckShield, a blockchain security firm, identified the exchange of assets for 1,64 million Dai and 13,785 ETH by the assailant.
The majority of the stolen funds were transferred to alternative wallets, with a portion of the DAI being transmitted to the FixedFload exchange.
Phishing attacks remain a significant challenge for the cryptocurrency industry. February witnessed the loss of nearly $47 million to crypto phishing schemes, according to a report by Scam Sniffer.
According to the report, 78% of the robberies occurred on the Ethereum network, with 86% of the stolen assets comprising ERC-20 tokens.
Recently, token approvals have also resulted in losses for cryptocurrency consumers. Using an obsolete contract, the Dolomite exchange illegally withdrew $1.8 million from users on March 20.
The vulnerability impacted users who granted authorizations for contract approvals. Dolomite’s development team, therefore, strongly advised users to revoke any authorizations previously given to the obsolete contract address.
While some attacks result in the loss of millions of dollars, others swiftly thwart attempts to steal cryptocurrencies. Intervention by its domain provider on March 20 prevented the Layerswap team from sustaining additional harm due to a breach of its website.
However, the intruders stole approximately $100,000 worth of assets from fifty users. The protocol stated that it would provide additional compensation and refund the affected users for the inconvenience.