The blockchain analysis company Chainalysis has announced that the hackers behind the $6.3 billion theft from Binance are using new and unprecedented patterns for laundering stolen assets. The company stated in its report that thousands of transactions have been made in a short period, indicating the use of automation to obscure the flow of funds.
New Methods of Hackers to Conceal Funds
Instead of transferring funds directly to other destinations, hackers frequently move funds between addresses and sometimes return funds to addresses that were previously involved in this process. This repetitive pattern allows hackers to evade monitoring and actions from authorities.
Billions of dollars of stolen assets are held in non-blockable cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. However, billions of dollars more are in stablecoins like USDT and USDC, which can be blocked. For this reason, it was expected that the issuers of these stablecoins, along with law enforcement and industry partners like Chainalysis, would take action to block these funds.
Hackers' Attempts to Stay Ahead of Blocking
Blocking funds is time-consuming, and hackers moved $500 million from stablecoins to a vault designed to convert these blockable assets into non-blockable assets to stay ahead of this process. In nearly 20 minutes, they converted $325 million from stablecoins to $285 million in Ethereum. Ten minutes later, the hackers transferred another $175 million from stablecoins to intermediary wallets in hopes of escaping blacklisting or blocking.
However, the industry was able to quickly respond to the hackers' actions, and as of 5:14 PM Eastern Time, the blocking of these funds began. This indicates effective collaboration between stablecoin issuers and law enforcement focused on preventing illegal activities in the cryptocurrency space.
Ultimately, this issue once again emphasizes the importance of monitoring financial activities in the cryptocurrency world and highlights the necessity of international cooperation in combating cybercrime. With the increasing market value of cryptocurrencies, the need for decisive and effective actions to protect investors and control illegal activities in this field is more pressing than ever.
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