A newly formed wallet, named “0x3ac,” has been making waves in the world of cryptocurrency by spending a stunning $49.5 million worth of DAI to buy a hulking 17,695 ETH.
The buying spree, which took place just a little over an hour ago, has sent shockwaves through the industry. It’s rumored to be connected to some kind of hack targeting the nascent crypto neo-bank Infini. The market is going crazy trying to figure out just what’s going on. And good luck with that, because the unfolding story is so patently absurd that it’s hard to believe it’s not some kind of crypto satire.
How the Hack Unfolded: Analyzing the Transaction
Blockchain data analytics platform Lookonchain reports that the freshly minted wallet “0x3ac” made a hefty purchase of Ethereum (ETH), buying it at an average price of $2,798. The wallet took on a total of 17,695 ETH at a cost of 49.52 million DAI. But it gets curiouser and curiouser. The wallet that made the purchase was funded with suspicious money. Of its 0.994 ETH used to spin up the wallet, 0.994 came freshly laundered from the privacy tool Tornado Cash. Tornado is a tool that some people use to obscure the origins of their transactions and is in no way a legitimate funding source for a new wallet that would be making large-scale purchases of Ethereum.
Many suspect that the sudden and large-scale transaction was actually a part of a larger scheme to launder the stolen funds. To keep the hacker’s identity hidden, the purchased ETH was then moved to a fresh new wallet, one that is now labeled “0xfcc.” This is a move you don’t see in traditional hacking.
Infini Neo-Bank Targeted: A Hacking Nightmare for the Crypto Industry
The colossal ETH buy is now directly tied to the Infini hack—a crypto neo-bank that has quickly emerged in the digital finance domain. Hack confirmed by Infini’s founder, Christianeth, who has taken to social media to ensure users that no private keys were compromised in the attack and that the platform’s operations are now and will continue to be unaffected by the hack.
Even though Christianeth promised that everything was fine, the crypto community is rattled. The hack has sent shockwaves through the crypto community, particularly among users of Infini’s services. Infini has built a reputation for providing seamless crypto banking services. This incident raises concerns about the security of those services and security measures at decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols in general. The attack on Infini is a reminder of the risks that exist in the DeFi ecosystem and of the vulnerabilities that even top projects can have.
The Aftermath: A Race to Recover Stolen Funds
Currently, the stolen funds seem to be with the hacker, who has moved them into the new wallet “0xfcc.” The hacker has acted quickly and used Tornado Cash to mix the funds, making tracing and recovery that much harder. With concerns about crypto laundering and hacking on the rise, the Infini team and law enforcement agencies are probably working night and day to recover the stolen ETH and minimize the laundering that is still going on.
The crypto community has become ever more watchful over the past year, keeping a close eye on all of the major hacks that have occurred. When it comes to the some $1.4 billion in funds that have been stolen over that time, we in the community obviously don’t want to see the bad actors behind those hacks convert stolen crypto into “legitimate” cash. Yet that is precisely what the hackers are always trying to do. And it’s what we always try to stop them from doing. Indeed, the use of privacy tools like Tornado Cash, which supposedly anonymize transactions, adds a layer of complexity to our efforts.
Although Infini’s management has assured that the hack will not affect its liquidity or its customers’ funds, the platform’s reputation could take a hit. The world of decentralized finance is maturing; attacks of this sort could cause potentially significant setbacks. At the very least, they raise serious questions about the security protocols that crypto projects adopt to protect user assets.
What’s Next for Infini and the Broader Crypto Industry?
Although Infini has confidently promised the public that there will be no liquidity problems or key compromises, this attack delivers a serious dent to their credibility—and that of the larger crypto ecosystem. The event underlines the ongoing difficulties encountered by young crypto institutions, especially when it comes to securing user funds against high-level hacking attempts.
This attack serves as a wake-up call for the crypto industry as a whole. The number of DeFi platforms has exploded in recent years and will likely continue to do so. The need for better security, then, is beyond urgent. Yet it is not something that the platforms can simply wish into place. They need to achieve it through innovation and investment into a more secure crypto economy. And what that boils down to, as far as I can tell: a diversification of their security measures and, even more importantly, a much more robust identification of those security measures’ vulnerabilities than they currently seem capable of.
From a regulatory perspective, this hack may prompt renewed conversations about how to better oversee decentralized platforms and put in place measures that guarantee their safety and transparency. Tools that enhance privacy and obfuscation, like Tornado Cash, will probably be looked at with more critical eyes and as a group of hackers more or less declared themselves the guardians of the privacy coin Monero, the balance between privacy and security in a rapidly evolving digital finance landscape will almost certainly get some regulatory attention.
While the investigation of the Infini hack is underway, it’s unclear how the platform will move forward and what takeaways there will be from this breach. The platform’s recovery may well depend on how much of its assets have been returned, which our sources indicate could be in the neighborhood of $15 million. For now, this incident underscores fears that the “most trusted institutions” of the crypto world are actually not that trustworthy after all.
Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.
Follow us on Twitter @themerklehash to stay updated with the latest Crypto, NFT, AI, Cybersecurity, and Metaverse news!
