The hacker behind the $25 million Kronos Research exploit has transferred another $2.6 million worth of Ether to Tornado Cash.
The perpetrator responsible for the $25 million Kronos Research breach has transferred an additional $2.6 million worth of Ether to Tornado Cash, a cryptocurrency blending service.
The 700 Ether transfer originated on May 21 from the wallet “0x3” utilized by the Kronos exploiter, according to an X post by on-chain security firm PeckShield.
On May 20, the perpetrator executed three transactions valued at 100 Ether. They have added seven more 100 ETH transactions today, for a total of 1,000 Ethers, which are currently valued at over $3.7 million.
After the 1,000 Ether transmission, the wallet currently retains more than 60 ETH, valued at over $223,000. According to CoinStats data, the hacker’s wallet peaked at over $6.4 million on May 19.
Due to Ether’s precipitous price increase, the intruder most likely decided to launder the funds. The price of Ether increased by more than 20% in the preceding twenty-four hours and was worth $3,744 at 11:14 am UTC. March 15 marked the last occasion Ether traded above $3,700, per CoinMarketCap.
The surge in Ether value can be attributed to speculation that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reversed course on spot Ether ETFs, potentially in response to political pressure. Reports indicate that the SEC has requested 19b-4 filings from ETF exchanges.
In furtherance of the optimistic investor sentiment, Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, has raised the probability of approval from 25% to 75%.
Exploiters may employ crypto mixing protocols, such as Tornado Cash, to obfuscate the path of crypto transactions and render the source of the funds exceedingly challenging to ascertain. These protocols are utilized to launder crypto from illegal activities.
Since May 7, when the perilous individual transmitted 1,314 Ether valued at more than $4 million to the identical cryptocurrency mixing service, the Kronos Research hacker has refrained from transferring funds.
In November 2023, Kronos Capital was compromised after the intruders successfully acquired the organization’s application programming interface keys. Initially, the company refuted any financial loss in its initial announcement.
Later, ZachXBT, an on-chain investigator, disclosed that approximately $12,800 ETH, valued at $25 million, had been pilfered and transmitted to six distinct cryptocurrency wallet addresses. Kronos Capital suspended trading services pending an investigation into the loss.
