Bittrue Hacker Funnels $30M Through Tornado Cash, Made $9.3M by Trading Ether

A hacker who stole $23 million from crypto exchange Bittrue in 2023 has started to launder the proceeds through Tornado Cash, according to Debank data cited by EmberCN.

The hacker sent $30 million worth of ether ETH to the mixing service on Thursday, having sold the token in 2023, buying it back after the price fell and holding it through ether’s subsequent gains.

The second-largest cryptocurrency by market value traded as high as $2,450 in 2023, and had dropped to as low as $1,472 in April before rebounding to trade as high as $2,873 this week, CoinDesk data show. The hacker made a $9.37 million in profit on their transaction, EmberCN said.

Debank data shows that all of the stolen funds are now being dispersed through Tornado Cash. It is unclear whether the hacker was a part of a larger group or working solo.

Crypto investors lost $1.67 billion to hacks and exploits in the first quarter of this year as the industry struggled to constrain the criminal underworld despite a rapid advance in institutional adoption.

The hacker’s on-chain trail on Etherscan shows that some funds were also laundered in April and between that period there were also several deposits to decentralized derivatives exchange HyperLiquid.