A crypto hacker involved in a Coinbase exploit has sparked the crypto markets once again as they disposed of 26,347 ETH worth $68.18M in DAI within 12 hours. The rapid-fire series of transactions spanned several blocks and liquidated the ETH on average at a price of $2,587.77 per ETH. After this mass dump, the attacker is left with $45.36M in DAI in two wallets.
Breaking Down the Transactions
As indicated by real-time blockchain monitoring with Onchain Lens and Nansen.ai, the attacker did this huge dump through the CoW Protocol decentralized settlement solution. The latest transaction involved the hacker selling an additional 4,863 ETH at the rate of $2,569 per ETH, or 12.5M DAI. Previous crypto trades were achieved in batches of 1,000 to 2,000 ETH.
The hacker has traded using two particular wallets. Both addresses were identified as having received ETH via THORChain (a cross-chain liquidity protocol common to exploits that help traders cover the trail of their funds) and subsequently observed to interact with the settlement contracts of CoW Protocol to dump ETH into stablecoins.
Suspicious Repurchases and Unusual Behavior
This purchase of ETH was strange because, on May 22, the same hacker had sold the stolen ETH at a higher price of more than $45M with each ETH coin being priced at 2,558. And yet he returned and purchased 207.17 ETH with 536,000 DAI.
Analysts noticed such a transaction and wrote it down as a strange behavior that may represent either a test of market manipulation or an overall calculated long-term action.
Although the ETH sales were quite significant, the attacker still retains $45.36M in DAI that could be purchased back as ETHs or transferred to other assets unless caught or stopped by freezing funds. The holding approach implies that the hacker is waiting till a good time in the market to re-enter.
Suspicious Crypto Repurchases and Unusual Behavior
This purchase of ETH was strange because, on May 22, the same hacker had sold the stolen ETH at a price of more than $45M with each ETH coin being priced at $2,558. And yet he returned the same evening and purchased 207.17 ETH with 536,000 DAI and again today he purchased 4,863 ETH at an average price of $2,569.
Analysts noticed such a transaction and wrote it down as a strange behavior that may represent either a test of crypto market manipulation or an overall calculated long-term action.
The incident is one more reminder of the skill behind crypto-related attacks in the modern day. Users and platforms await the next move as the hacker moves through blockchain anonymity with remarkable speed and ease.
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