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A massive crypto theft has occurred, resulting in the loss of $282 million in both Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin (BTC). The theft was carried out via a hardware-wallet social engineering scam. Lookonchain reported the scam in a post on X.
Monero price spikes after stolen BTC and LTC swaps
According to Lookonchain, after the stealing took place, the attacker converted the Bitcoin and Litecoin into Monero (XMR). Notably, Monero is a privacy-focused coin that is much harder to trace compared to other crypto assets.
Given the attacker’s large swap of the BTC and LTC to Monero, this triggered a massive spike in the price of XMR. It caused Monero to jump from a low of $612.02 to a daily peak of $717.69 after the attack. However, as of this writing, Monero is changing hands at $623.05, which represents an 11.41% decline in the last 24 hours.
The trading volume has also fallen by 29.99% to $255.75 million. This crash came as massive fear of suspected cashing out filtered into the Monero community. There were fears that the attacker would also dump Monero for other assets. The development created panic and sell pressure in the ecosystem, hence the 11.41% decline in price.
Meanwhile, the attacker also used THORChain to swap assets cross-chain. The attacker took advantage of the decentralized cross-chain protocol that allows swaps between blockchains without using a centralized exchange.
The hacker’s use of THORChain also emphasizes how DEX can be used to rapidly move stolen funds within the crypto ecosystem. It also shows the challenges associated with tracking and recovering stolen crypto assets when they are moved using privacy coins.
The attacker might be a skilled crypto thief who is experienced in laundering assets and redistributing funds within the ecosystem.
Monero's growing appeal and market performance
Meanwhile, given the privacy appeal of Monero, the coin was able to break into the top 15 assets in the crypto space. Monero currently occupies the 12th position in ranking with a market capitalization of $11.54 billion.
The appeal and its market performance probably influenced legendary crypto trader Peter Brandt to make the purchase of Monero. As U.Today reported, Brandt revealed that he made enormous profit trading Monero.
Despite the growing use of privacy coins like Monero, Zcash and Dash in crypto scams, proponents still believe they are the future of the Web3 ecosystem.
Godfrey Benjamin
Tomiwabold Olajide
Dan Burgin