Breaking: Over $330M in BTC Potentially Stolen as Suspicious Transaction Flagged

As the cryptoasset industry is still dealing with the aftermath of the Bybit hack in February, a new suspicious transaction has been flagged, pointing at a possible theft of hundreds of millions worth of bitcoin (BTC).

On Monday morning (UTC time), popular blockchain sleuth ZachXBT posted on X that "nine hours ago a suspicious transfer was made from a potential victim for 3,520 BTC," which is now worth $333 million.

The investigator also shared the theft BTC address: bc1qcrypchnrdx87jnal5e5m849fw460t4gk7vz55g.

According to ZachXBT, the funds have begun to be laundered via more than six unspecified so-called instant crypto exchanges, where they were swapped for the most popular privacy coin, monero (XMR). This has pushed the XMR price up, which at the time of writing is up 27% in a day, after erasing some of the initial gains.

While the details about the heist are scarce, the investigator claims that it's highly probable that this time North Korean state-sponsored hackers are not behind this suspected hack. North Koreans have been accused of hacking the Bybit exchange as well.

XMR is considered nearly impossible to track, which is why regulators are trying to increase pressure on exchanges still offering this coin, and, subsequently, some of them are delisting monero.

However, the question is how the suspected hacker will cash out the potentially stolen funds as centralized exchanges are requiring registration. Meanwhile, some suggest that the so-called atomic swaps can be used, meaning that XMR, once all traces are hidden, can be converted back to BTC without relying on a trusted central authority.

The story will be updated as new information comes in.