Poloniex Hacker Transfers $53.5 Million Worth of ETH via Tornado Cash

The movement of stolen cryptocurrencies following the Poloniex hack in November 2023 is far from over. Although Poloniex claimed to have identified the attacker weeks later and offered a $10 million reward, the stolen funds were never returned.

In the latest development, PeckShield, a blockchain research company, discovered that more than half of the stolen funds moved through Tornado Cash.

More than six months after the hack, the bad actor moved 17.8K eth (worth approximately $53.5 million from six different wallets) to a single address of the controversial coin mixer, Tornado Cash.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet”>

twitter.com/hashtag/PeckShieldAlert?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw” data-wpel-link=”external” target=”_blank”>#PeckShieldAlert He twitter.com/hashtag/Poloniex?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw” data-wpel-link=”external” target=”_blank”>#poloniex The hacker has already sent a total of 17.8K. twitter.com/search?q=%24ETH&src=ctag&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw” data-wpel-link=”external” target=”_blank”>$eth (valued at ~$53.5 million) twitter.com/hashtag/TornadoCash?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw” data-wpel-link=”external” target=”_blank”>#TornadoCash pic.twitter.com/gpkIYVA2fZ

– PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) twitter.com/PeckShieldAlert/status/1790266434809192772?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw” data-wpel-link=”external” target=”_blank”>May 14, 2024

The latest fund transfer comes a week after the hacker moved over 1,100 eth in 11 batches of 100 eth to the authorized crypto mixer over a two-hour period.

Poloniex was hacked in November 2023 after malicious actors compromised its private keys.

The attackers, suspected to be the notorious Lazarus Group associated with the North Korean government, stole around $126 million from the exchange's hot wallets.

Poloniex later claimed that its team identified and froze a portion of the assets linked to the hacker's addresses to prevent further losses. They also mentioned that the losses are within “manageable limits” and that their operating income can cover them.

TRON founder Justin Sun, who purchased Poloniex in 2019, promised to fully compensate affected users of the exchange and stated that it is financially stable and is seeking partnerships with other exchanges to recover lost funds.

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