Kronos Research Hacker Moves $3.7M into Tornado Cash After Ethereum Price Rise
The hacker behind the $25 million Kronos Research exploit transferred another $2.6 million worth of Ether to cryptocurrency mixing service Tornado Cash.
The transfer with a value of 700 Ether (ETH) occurred from the Kronos exploit wallet “0x3” on May 21, according to the X post of the chain security company PeckShield.
The exploiter sent three transactions worth 100 Ether each on May 20, followed by seven more 100 ETH transactions today for a total of 1,000 Ether worth more than $3.7 million today.
Following the 1,000 Ether transfer, the wallet contains a little over 60 ETH worth over $223,000. At its peak, the hacker's wallet was worth more than $6.4 million on May 19, CoinStats data shows.
The hacker's decision to swindle funds may be due to the rapid rise in the price of Ether. As of 11:14 AM UTC, the price of Ether has increased by more than 20% in the last 24 hours to trade at $3,744. The last time Ether traded above $3,700 was on March 15, according to CoinMarketCap.
Ether's rally may follow reports that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been able to turn on Ether ETFs — possibly under political pressure — to ask ETF exchanges to update their 19b-4 filings.
Eric Balchunas, senior Bloomberg ETF analyst, added to investor sentiment, raising the odds from 25 percent to 75 percent.
Related: Fidelity Amends Ether ETF S-1 Filing, Reportedly Eliminates ETH Stock
Crypto hashing protocols like Tornado Cash are used to hide the path of crypto transactions and make it extremely difficult to trace the source of the funds – which exploiters use to launder crypto from illicit activities.
The Kronos Research hacker had not moved funds since May 7, after the exploiter transferred 1,314 Ether worth more than $4 million to the same crypto-mixing service.
Kronos Capital was compromised in November 2023 after the exploiters were able to obtain the company's application program interface keys. The company denied any financial loss during the initial announcement.
Later, on-chain investigator ZachXBT revealed that approximately 12,800 ETH worth $25 million had been stolen and transferred to six unique crypto wallet addresses. Kronos Capital has suspended trading services to investigate the loss.
Magazine: Trader Turns $3K to $46M in PEPE, Ethereum Gas Shift, Tornado dev Guilty: Hodler Digest, May 12-18
