$27 Million Worth of Stablecoins Reportedly Stolen in Crypto Wallet Hack

A wallet linked to the well-known exchange Binance has been breached, leading to a significant loss of $27 million.

The incident primarily involved the theft of Tether (USDT) and was brought to light by the reputable on-chain investigator ZachXBT.

ZachXBT Reveals $27M Crypto Heist on Binance-Linked Wallet

According to on-chain detective ZachXBT, a cryptocurrency wallet has recently suffered a breach. The attack, which transpired on November 11, resulted in the loss of the wallet’s $27 million in Tether stablecoins (USDT).

It appears someone had 27M USDT stolen yesterday.

0x0f2183c8e415e61b4ad7774bf1097019eb2d5b85798a2a229070495131d60321

USDT was quickly swapped for ETH, then transferred to a number of services (FixedFloat, ChangeNow, etc), and bridged to Bitcoin via THORChain. pic.twitter.com/SgEBwyZZSc

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) November 12, 2023

According to ZachXBT’s analysis, the stolen funds were swiftly converted from USDT to Ethereum (ETH). Following this, they underwent a series of transactions across ious services, including FixedFloat and ChangeNow, a common tactic used by hackers to hide the trail of stolen assets. The final phase involved bridging these assets to Bitcoin through THORChain, a decentralized liquidity protocol.

The origin of the funds adds an intriguing layer to the story. The wallet had received the sum through a withdrawal from Binance just a week prior to the heist. Further deepening the connection, ZachXBT’s investigation revealed that in May 2019, the same wallet received funds from an address marked by Etherscan as a Binance smart contract deployer.

Record $699 Million Lost in Q3 2023 Web3 Security Breaches

According to Certik’s Web3 Security Quarterly report for Q3 2023, this quarter has been the most eventful, with more than $699 million lost across 184 security incidents. This figure exceeds the combined losses of the first two quarters, with $320 million in losses in Q1 and $313 million in Q2.

The report highlights the North Korean state-affiliated Lazarus Group as one of the most formidable threat actors responsible for significant losses. The Lazarus Group, known for its sophisticated tactics, has targeted Web3 personnel this year, resulting in a confirmed loss of at least $291 million. Their strategy heavily relies on social engineering to breach security defenses across multiple platforms.

Another significant factor contributing to this quarter’s losses was private key compromises, accounting for $204 million across 14 incidents. Notably, incidents involving Mixin and Multichain alone resulted in $325 million in losses.