According to blockchain security firms, criminals frequently transfer altcoins into Ether in order to prepare for laundering, as the native token lacks a built-in mechanism for freezing.
The hacker responsible for the $235 million WazirX cryptocurrency exchange exploit has converted nearly $150 million of altcoins to Ether, a move that is likely to prevent the freezing or blacklisting of funds.
According to blockchain analytics firm Spot On Chain, the mass conversion of funds to Ether between July 18 and 19 included $90.2 million in Shiba Inu and roughly $7.5 million in Pepe (PEPE).
The total quantity of misappropriated funds in Ether has now reached $201 million, an increase from the initial $52 million. This is the result of the transfers.
“The intruder likely transferred the ERC-20 tokens to Ether because it is more liquid and cannot be prohibited,” Spot On Chain informed Cointelegraph.
“While certain ERC20 tokens have a contract function that allows for the blacklisting of addresses, the ETH native token does not have this capability.”
PeckShield, a blockchain security firm, stated in comments to Cointelegraph that hackers can safeguard their funds by rapidly transitioning to Ether before authorities or the issuers of centralized tokens implement any preventative measures.
Tether, a stablecoin issuer, has blacklisted hundreds of wallets that have made suspicious transactions with Spot On Chain added. This serves as a textbook example of this.
According to blockchain security firm Beosin, ether is simpler to launder through cryptocurrency exchanges and aggregator protocols, and its price is significantly more stable.
The breach resulted in a SHIB selloff, which has decreased by nearly 7% since the incident, whereas Ether’s price has only decreased by 0.1%.
According to the X post, Spot On Chain, the intruder still possesses approximately $12 million in Chromia (CHR), Celer Network (CELR), Frontier (FRONT), and Ooki (OOKI) tokens.
According to WarzirX’s June proof-of-reserves statement, the Indian-based cryptocurrency exchange suspended withdrawals on July 18 following a security compromise that resulted in the loss of nearly half of its reserves.
“We are making every effort to locate and retrieve the funds, despite the fact that this is a force majeure event beyond our control.” WazirX has already blocked a few deposits and contacted wallets that are concerned for recovery.
Elliptic, a blockchain forensics firm, informed Cointelegraph that the WazirX attack’s specific patterns and techniques led them to suspect that North Korean hackers were responsible for the $235 million breach.
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