Hacker may have laundered R$400 million worth of cryptocurrencies in an unusual way

ZachXBT, a cryptocurrency industry detective, believes that a hacker buys trading cards from Magic: the meeting wash more then 35,000 ETH (R$400 million) linked to three great hacks.

The choice may be related to the size of the market for these collectible cards. For example, in August this year, rapper Post Malone bought the rarest Magic: The Gathering card, worth $2 million.

While modestly admitting that his analysis may be incorrect, ZachXBT reveals that the alleged hacker is buying these cards above market price, paying about 5-10% more than they are worth.

Hacker may buy trading cards to use cryptocurrencies flagged by US authorities

In short, researcher ZachXBT believes that the Ethers (ETH) in question are linked to the hacks of Uranium financing (11,303 ETH in April 2021), from Checkout (11,500 ETH in March 2022) and AnubisDAO (12,400 ETH as of July 2023).

“Over the course of this year, I followed someone who withdrew more than 11,200 ETH (R$128 million) from Tornado Cash and spent most of it on Magic The Gathering (MTG) trading cards.”began ZachXBT.

As for the first hack, of Uranium, the hacker left the balance frozen for almost two years before sending the ether to Tornado Cash. In other words, he had plenty of time to come up with a plan to use this money without being discovered.

Since there is no perfect crime, ZachXBT notes that the person he thinks is the hacker made 110 withdrawals of 100 ETH from Tornado Cash to 11 different addresses. He then performed the same procedure on all of them.

1) Transformed ETH [em WETH];
2) WETH transferred to a new address;
3) Transformed WETH [em ETH];
4) USDC transferred to the exchange [cartas do Magic: The Gathering].

Because the suspect pays for the cards with cryptocurrencies, ZachXBT was able to contact the sellers. “That’s where it got interesting”wrote ZachXBT.

“The buyer spent millions on starter decks, alpha sets and sealed boxes. The buyer turned out to have paid 5 to 10% too much. The buyer has previously sent the cryptocurrencies [de receber as cartas] and the agent has met the seller in person. The seller did not know the buyer.”

Then the researcher notes that the seller had limited knowledge about cryptocurrencies, probably not knowing what Tornado Cash was. Another mention about the mixer is that the suspect continued to use Tornado Cash even after the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) approved the service.

In another part of his investigation, ZachXBT also reveals that one of the addresses contains an Aztec deposit, from 2021, hours after the Uranium hacker deposited ~5 ETH on the platform. The full investigation can be read on his Twitter.

“Welcome to cryptocurrencies”

In the comments, many praised ZachXBT’s work. Others were surprised by the creativity of the alleged hacker, who could have just been an ordinary person trying to hide his addiction to collectibles.

“Basically this is money laundering, to be honest. Clean game”one of them remarked, laughing.

“It’s pretty blatant.”replied ZachXBT.

“This is so weird”another commented.

“Welcome to cryptocurrencies”replied the investigator, already accustomed to things that would surprise even the FBI.

welcome to crypto

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) December 7, 2023

As for the incredible stories in the world of cryptocurrencies, the highlights include the Silk Road hacker who was arrested after calling the police to investigate a robbery at his home. Most of it 50,000 bitcoinsvalued today at R$10.6 billion, were found in a popcorn can.

Already an eccentric couple stole 119,754 bitcoins (R$25.6 billion, at current prices) from a real estate agent, but they too were arrested. If that wasn’t enough, a drug lord saw his cryptocurrencies increase in value by 15,000% while in prison, but the US government confiscated the amount when he tried to get it out of jail.

Finally, a film director was recently accused of failing Netflix to invest in the cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE). In the end, he profited from his bet, a story worthy of a movie.