Blockchain Bandit Moves $172M ETH After 2 Years of Dormancy: ZachXBT
Blockchain Bandit, the notorious hacker who stole 51,000 Ether by guessing weak private keys, merged the funds into one wallet after sleeping for two years.
The entire 51,000 Ether (ETH) was transferred from 10 wallet addresses to the multi-signature address “0xC45…1D542,” blockchain researcher ZackXBT said in a December 30 Telegram post.
The funds were transferred mostly in batches of 5,000 Ether between 8:54 pm UTC and 9:18 pm UTC on December 30th.
Prior to that, the stolen funds had been lying dormant in 10 wallet addresses since January 21, 2023, when 51,000 Ether had previously been moved. At the same time, the hacker moved 470 Bitcoin (BTC).
Money movement stolen by blockchain hacker. Source: ZachXBT
A blockchain hacker successfully guessed weak private keys and managed to collect nearly 45,000 ether, Cointelegraph reported in April 2019, citing a report by independent security reviewers.
While guessing a private key is statistically impossible, the hacker was able to find 732 private keys associated with 49,060 transactions.
The hacker used brute force searches to search for random private keys in a process called “Ethercombing,” which combines flawed code searches and flawed random number generators, crypto security analyst Adrian Bednarek explained at the time.
The hacker has been carrying out such “program theft” since 2016, with the most significant scalps occurring in 2018, according to ZachXBT's analysis.
While the identity of the blockchain hacker remains unknown, Bednarek has previously suggested that a state actor such as North Korea could be behind the theft.
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Crypto hackers stole more than $2.3 billion worth of assets in 165 major incidents in 2024, a 40% increase compared to 2023, according to a report shared by onchain security firm Syvers.
The 40% increase was primarily due to an increase in access control violations, particularly at centralized exchanges and custodial platforms.
Access control vulnerabilities accounted for 81%, or $1.9 billion, of the value stolen from 67 cybersecurity incidents in 2024.
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