A hacker who exploited the HECO Chain has successfully transferred and anonymized nearly 40,392 Ether (ETH) using the crypto-mixing protocol Tornado Cash over the course of eight days. PeckShield, a crypto investigator, reported that the hacker made 19 outbound transfers to Tornado Cash addresses in an attempt to make approximately $145.7 million worth of stolen Ether untraceable. The majority of the funds were sent to a single Tornado Cash address, while a smaller amount was sent separately to another address. The largest transaction involved the hacker sending 11,300 ETH worth approximately $39.5 million in one transfer. It is common for crypto hackers to use Tornado Cash to conceal the ownership of their stolen funds. This incident follows a similar case on March 21, where an account linked to a $24 million Rocket Pool hack from September 2023 transferred 3,700 ETH to Tornado Cash for the same purpose. The Lazarus Group, a hacking group from North Korea, has also resumed using Tornado Cash to launder funds stolen from hacks since March 13. It is worth noting that the Tornado Cash protocol was previously sanctioned by the United States Treasury Department in August 2022 for its alleged involvement in facilitating the laundering of over $1 billion in illicit funds, including funds tied to the Lazarus Group. The co-founder of Tornado Cash, Roman Storm, pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit sanctions violations, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in September 2023. The recent proposal to fund the legal defense costs of the Tornado Cash co-founders by the Arbitrum DAO was removed on March 10. The reasons for this removal are unclear at the moment.
Anonymous HECO Chain user successfully conceals $145M worth of Ether using Tornado Cash within 8 days