The recent hack attacks have led to financial losses for many users. Blockchain analytics researchers investigating these attacks have identified a person connected to the CoinEx attack. This individual is offering their crypto assets at discounted prices and is known to be involved in crypto money laundering operations. The person’s identity is unknown, but it is estimated that they live in Europe.
Contact Established with CoinEx Hacker
A representative from Match System, a blockchain security company, stated that during the summer of 2023, many attackers attempted to sell their assets using similar methods. Researchers contacted the person through Telegram and discovered that they were selling stolen crypto assets. The user had a wallet with over 6 million dollars worth of cryptocurrency.
The contacted person offers their assets at a 3% discount and directs the negotiations through a Telegram bot. After the conversation, the person informed the team that their assets had been sold and that a new sale could take place in three weeks. The researchers made the following comment regarding the individual:
“The person we have been in contact with informed us that new asset sales have started. Based on the available information, it is reasonable to assume that these funds are coming from CoinEx or Stake companies.”
How are Assets Laundered in Hack Attacks?
The Match Systems team was unable to determine the person’s identity, but based on the published screenshots and conversation times, it was revealed that the person lives in Europe. The team summarized the situation as follows:
“We believe that this person is not part of the core team, but we think they are associated with them. It is likely that the transferred assets were anonymized as a guarantee that they will not be misused. They usually offer a 3% discount. Previously, when we first detected them, they were sending 3.14 TRX as proof to potential customers.”
The team also mentioned that the individual preferred Bitcoin as a payment method and later sold Tron tokens worth over 6 million dollars. Following this development, the person offered TRX, Ethereum, and BNB tokens worth 50 million dollars. Another security company, CertiK, summarized the movement of stolen funds in the Stake hack attack and reported that approximately 4.8 million dollars of the 41 million dollars were sent to various ecosystems and laundered through different exchange methods.
