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The recent exploiters who hacked Heco Bridge have been found to launder their stolen assets through the controversial cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash. According to PeckShieldAlert, the hackers collectively laundered over 40,000 Ethereum (ETH) valued at $145.7 million.
As of today, the exploiters have transferred approximately $40,391.8 ETH to TornadoCash within the last eight days. This incident follows the Heco Bridge hack in November 2023, resulting in a daily loss of around $111 million. $86.6 million was withdrawn from the Heco Bridge service and instantly transferred to decentralized trading platforms in various tokens.
Analysts also discovered suspicious activities on the HTX cryptocurrency exchange, where $23.4 million was withdrawn in a pattern similar to the Heco Bridge hack. As a result, the HTX exchange has temporarily suspended withdrawals.
In a related incident, North Korean hackers from the Lazarus group allegedly transferred ETH to BlackRock through Tornado Cash. This operation raised concerns as BlackRock’s new institutional crypto fund received unsolicited ETH shortly after its launch, potentially leading to legal issues for the asset manager.
The U.S. authorities had previously banned Tornado Cash in 2022 due to its association with money laundering activities. The digital assets in the BlackRock wallet were linked to the savings of the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund. Elliptic also reported that the Lazarus Group had used Tornado Cash to launder proceeds from the Heco Bridge and HTX hack.
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