Ronin Hackers Moved $625M Of Stolen Money To BTC Network

Ronin hackers moved $625 million of stolen money to the Bitcoin network, according to fresh findings by a blockchain investigator and developer with the user handle of BliteZero. He has stated that his investigation has shown that Ronin hackers transported the stolen money from Ethereum to the Bitcoin network.

Remember that following the Ronin bridge hack in March, the attackers transferred $625 million in USDC and ETH to Ethereum-based crypto mixer Tornado Cash, making it impossible for authorities to track the assets’ path. However, Tornado was not the end of the hackers’ efforts to obscure the transactions.

The Money Trail

According to BliteZero, he has been tracking the stolen funds and discovered that the attackers had transferred all of the assets to the Bitcoin protocol via a network bridge and several crypto exchanges.

I've been tracking the stolen funds on Ronin Bridge.
I've noticed that Ronin hackers have transferred all of their funds to the bitcoin network. Most of the funds have been deposited to mixers(ChipMixer, Blender).

This thread🧵 will illustrate the tracking analysis procedures.👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/yrazcJ22xF

— ₿liteZero (@blitezero) August 20, 2022

The Use Of Centralized Exchanges

After withdrawing assets from Tornado Cash, the hackers moved around 6,250 ETH ($20.7 million) to controlled exchanges (CEXs) such as Binance, Huobi, and FTX before delivering the funds to North Korean crypto mixer Blender, according to the blockchain investigator.

The US Treasury Department sanctioned Blender addresses in May, saying that the crypto mixer supported the Ronin hackers in processing more than $20.5 million in stolen assets.

Interestingly, BliteZero revealed that the Ronin hackers utilized the majority of the sanctioned Blender addresses to collect cash after withdrawing from CEXs. Following the money, the investigator observed that the total amount removed from the exchanges was $20.72 million, which corresponded to the US Treasury’s claim.

Ronin Hackers Moved $625M Of Stolen Money To BTC Network

The remaining assets were converted to renBTC by the hackers utilizing 1inch or Uniswap. RenBTC is a bitcoin wrapper on the Ethereum network driven by the Ren Protocol. Because Ren allows for the transfer of wealth between blockchains, the hackers were able to connect the assets from Ethereum to the Bitcoin network.

Following that, the majority of the proceeds were routed to crypto mixers such as ChipMixer and Blender. They moved the money to ChipMixer before transferring some to Blender.

In closing the Twitter conversation, BliteZero stated that they are presently working on evaluating the hackers, which they anticipate will be more difficult.

“I’m working on analyzing Ronin hackers, and the next work will be more complex. ‘Where’s the money?’ It is a mystery to be investigated, and I look forward to more progress being made. Thanks for taking the time to read my thread, good luck.” – said the investigator in closing.

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