Hacker Begins Laundering KyberSwap Stolen Funds via Tornado Cash

The attacker behind the KyberSwap exploit has started laundering the stolen funds through Tornado Cash as of December 3rd, moving 1,000 ETH in an attempt to obfuscate the assets.

According to blockchain data, the hacker responsible for the attack on KyberSwap, which resulted in a $48.8 million loss, has begun laundering the stolen funds using the Tornado Cash mixer.

Specifically, on the afternoon of December 3rd, the attacker transferred over 2,010 ETH from Arbitrum to Ethereum, subsequently sending 1,000 ETH to Tornado Cash through multiple transactions of 100 ETH each.

Source: Bloomberg

Previously reported by Coin68, the anonymous hacker exploited a vulnerability in KyberSwap's protocol, extracting $48.8 million from liquidity providers on the DEX. After several days of silence, the hacker made an unexpected offer to return 50% of the stolen assets if Kyber Network, the company behind KyberSwap, handed over the entire project to him.

Kyber Network responded by outright rejecting the hacker's demand, vowing to compensate affected users fully and promising to unmask the hacker's identity.

The hacker's decision to begin laundering the funds through Tornado Cash signals a tacit acknowledgment that no deal will be reached with Kyber Network.

Tornado Cash, an Ethereum-based transaction mixer, has been accused by the US government of facilitating money laundering for various hacking groups responsible for major crypto thefts. Consequently, in August 2022, Tornado Cash was added to the US sanctions list, and the project's two founders were arrested.

Despite these actions, Tornado Cash's smart contract remains operational and continues to be used by both legitimate crypto users and sophisticated hackers to conceal transaction trails on Ethereum.