The hacker who successfully attacked the Kyber Network is back in action after a break of seven months, which has caused new alarms in the cryptocurrency world. Thus, on October 22, 2024, the hacker initiated another trade and used Tornado Cash to launder 2,200 (ETH) worth approximately $5.83 million.
A High-Profile Hack Revisited
The well-known Kyber Network hacker was identified as the one who hacked the decentralized liquidity protocol in November 2023 and got away with $48.3 million in crypto form. These stolen funds were taken from several blockchains such as Arbitrum, Optimism, Ethereum, Polygon, Base, and others.
After the hack was committed, the attacker appeared to go dormant during the following months, and many of the stolen assets were left untouched. However, on October 22, 2024, several blockchain analysts spotted the large movement of funds from the attacker’s wallet.
The Latest Move: Wash through Tornado Cash
The hacker’s return activated 2,200 ETH originating from Tornado Cash, which is a platform that specifically conceals the sender and receiver of transactions. This latest transaction now takes the total amount of laundered ETH to 7,200 ETH ($17.23M), which means that the hacker has been able to clear about 15% of all the stolen assets. Now, 12,306 ETH ($32.2M) are still untouched by the hacker and are stashed in 16 distinct wallets, according to the data provided by Spot On Chain.
A Growing Concern for DeFi Security
The Kyber Network exploit is not the first time a DeFi hack has occurred, and it’s become a common trend in the crypto world. At the same time, mixing services such as Tornado Cash are still capable of preventing the identification of stolen funds, which is causing doubts about the effectiveness of modern blockchain protection solutions.
However, for Kyber Network, the reappearance of the hacker is worrying that the stolen assets are still looming. Although the funds have been partially laundered, the rest of the amount is still out there and thus continues to be an ever-present menace to the platform and the DeFi fraternity as a whole.
All of the events take place along the hack; the hacker continues to steal and transfer money, and everyone looks at the blockchain to identify more movements. The specialists of the crypto community are still observing the situation, albeit various traditional investigative measures might not always be sufficient, especially when the attacker can leverage, for instance, Tornado Cash.
