Crypto hackers buy Ethereum dip using stolen funds

Cryptocurrency hackers saw the ongoing crash market as an opportunity to buy up heavily discounted Ether (ETH) using stolen funds from previous heists.

On Aug. 5, 16,892 ETH was bought using stolen cryptocurrency funds linked to a hack on crypto bridge Nomad from August 2022. This comes at a time when Ether lost over 20% of its value — from approximately $2,760 to $2,172 — in under 12 hours, according to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView.

Buying the dip with stolen funds

Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain noted that the Nomad bridge exploiter used 39.75 million DAI (DAI) of stolen tokens to buy 16,892 ETH. Soon after the purchase, the hacker began moving the stolen funds to crypto mixer Tornado Cash.

Crypto hackers tend to use crypto mixing services like Tornado Cash to deter onchain traceability and usually do so with no intention to return the stolen funds.

Adding to Lookonchain’s findings, blockchain investigation firm PeckShield noted that the Nomad exploiter concurrently sent 17.75 ETH to an intermediary Ethereum address. At the time of writing, the hacker transferred approximately 2,400 ETH (worth $7 million) to Tornado Cash.

Hackers take advantage of market prices

Moreover, stolen funds linked to the Pancake Bunny hack from three years ago are also on the move amid ongoing market uncertainty.

The hacker, intending to take advantage of lower crypto prices, swapped their stolen DAI token to ETH. However, blockchain investigator Officer CIA said that the 3.6 million DAI was sent to a DAI stablecoin address “by mistake.”

Pancake Bunny is a decentralized finance protocol on the BNB Smart Chain that had fallen victim to a flash loan attack in 2021.

It is important to note that sending crypto tokens to unsupported wallets may result in irreversible loss of funds.

Recently, on July 8, the Pancake Bunny hacker siphoned $2.9 million worth of Ether through Tornado Cash.