Twitter Hackers Try to Launder Funds Via P2P and Gambling Platforms

Published at: July 22, 2020

Blockchain forensics firm Ciphertrace has traced funds obtained by the Twitter hackers in the ‘giveaway’ scam to peer-to-peer (P2P) exchanges and crypto gambling sites.

On July 21, Ciphertrace reported that 0.2 Bitcoin (BTC) had been transferred to a P2P exchange via a ‘peel chain’ also used by the hackers to move funds to a crypto casino.

Peel chains comprise chains of wallets that funds incrementally pass through to obfuscate the movement of illicitly obtained crypto. The tactic is believed to be favored by North Korean hackers — with Ciphertrace estimating that Chinese nationals linked to North Korea have laundered more than $100 million using peel chains.

Funds on the move

A day earlier, on July 20, Ciphertrace reported that the Twitter hackers had established several peel chains to move the stolen funds onto a variety of crypto exchanges, P2P marketplaces, and gambling platforms.

The security firm noted sums of between roughly 0.1 and 0.15 BTC being moved to exchanges located in India, the United States, and Turkey.

Ciphertrace has identified 18 transactions in total made by the hackers to various crypto platforms in total, including more than 1 BTC that was sent to a regulated exchange in Singapore.

While early reports showed that many of the hackers’ transfers were destined for coin mixing services, the scammers appear to have since directed their laundering efforts to crypto trading venues.

Ciphertrace also identified a transfer to an old Binance cold wallet which the firm believes was intended to troll investigators.

Ciphertrace launches ‘predictive risk scoring’

Ciphertrace today announced the introduction of “real-time transaction risk scoring” intended to flag suspicious Bitcoin transactions prior to their confirmation to its software suite.

The new software is intended to allow crypto exchanges, payment processors, and ATM operators to rapidly freeze and investigate suspicious transactions before they are finalized on the blockchain.

Tags
Business
Cryptocurrency Exchange
Hacks
Gambling
Twitter
P2P
Related Posts
Bitfinex hack recovery spurs crypto community responses
On February 1, there were movements of around $2.5 billion from the 2016 Bitfinex hack wallets. After reviewing the transactions, Cointelegraph reported that around 90,000 Bitcoin (BTC), worth $3.6 billion, consolidated into one wallet address. More than a week later, the hackers were caught. The United States Department of Justice seized $3.6 billion in crypto and arrested two suspects connected to the 2016 hack. Alleged hackers Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan were apprehended after federal authorities exercised their ability to “follow the money through the blockchain” according to the DoJ. While some of the funds were partially recovered in 2019, …
Bitcoin / Feb. 9, 2022
Creditors of Mt. Gox Bitcoin exchange to vote on draft refund plan
The trustee of hacked, now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox has posted another update on the long-running process of refunding the exchange clients. Nobuaki Kobayashi, a Tokyo attorney appointed to act as civil rehabilitation trustee to manage Mt. Gox’s bankruptcy estate funds, announced Thursday that the Tokyo District Court ordered that “There were no grounds for disapproving the draft rehabilitation plan.” As previously reported, the plan was filed on Dec. 15, 2020. According to the announcement, the court has approved a repayment process schedule that includes a vote by creditors on the proposed refund plan. As part of the process, the …
Bitcoin / Feb. 25, 2021
Paxful Launches Peer-to-Peer Trading Between Gold and Bitcoin
Peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency marketplace Paxful announced the introduction of support for trade between gold and Bitcoin (BTC) on the platform on April 7. With the announcement, Paxful now facilitates physical trading in 16 different countries. Cointelegraph spoke to Paxful CEO and Founder Ray Youssef, who attributed the decision to support gold to “surprisingly high” customer demand. When a trade is entered, the Bitcoin will remain in Paxful’s escrow until the physical delivery of the gold is confirmed. Transactions must be completed within 21 days of trade being opened on the platform. Paxful will not physically track or touch the gold …
Bitcoin / April 7, 2020
The aftermath of Axie Infinity’s $650M Ronin Bridge hack
In late March, Ronin, an Ethereum sidechain built for the popular play-to-earn nonfungible token game Axie Infinity, was hacked for over 173,600 Ether (ETH) and 25.5 million USD Coin (USDC) for a combined value of over $600 million. The breach on the Ronin bridge was confirmed by Sky Mavis, the developers behind the popular play-to-earn (P2E) game: There has been a security breach on the Ronin Network.https://t.co/ktAp9w5qpP — Ronin (@Ronin_Network) March 29, 2022 The official report from the company noted that the hackers managed to get access to private keys to validator nodes resulting in the compromise of five validator …
Blockchain / April 12, 2022
Ledger hardware wallets hit by the FTX earthquake, CTO says
Hardware-based cryptocurrency wallet provider Ledger has experienced some issues due to massive outflows from crypto exchanges amid the FTX bloodbath, according to its chief technology officer. Ledger saw a “massive usage” of their platforms and suffered a “few scalability challenges” on Nov. 9, Ledger CTO Charles Guillemet reported in a statement on Twitter. Guillemet reasoned Ledger’s issues by the outcomes of the ongoing crisis of a major global cryptocurrency exchange, FTX. The CTO said that crypto investors have been increasingly offloading their holdings from crypto exchanges to Ledger, stating: “ After the FTX earthquake, there's a massive outflow from exchanges …
Bitcoin / Nov. 10, 2022