The hackers behind the exploit of the cryptocurrency betting platform, Stake, have moved almost $328,000 worth of BNB and Polygon tokens. This recent development was shared by the blockchain security firm, CertiK.
We are seeing a further movement of funds from the Stake exploiter.
520k MATIC was swapped and bridged to Avalanche before being bridged to BTC as per other fund movements from the exploiter.
See more on Skynet 👇https://t.co/Sdsfh29AoF
— CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) September 11, 2023
The series of most recent transfers involved approximately 300 BNB tokens worth $61,500 being moved to an externally owned address. Following the transfer, these funds were bridged to the Avalanche network just recently. Approximately seven hours before that transfer, 520,000 MATIC tokens were transferred to Avalanche.
According to the findings of the blockchain security firm, CertiK, these recent transfers, totaling $328,000, add to the $4.5 million that was previously bridged to the Bitcoin blockchain back on September 7. Furthermore, it is necessary to remember that the amount of $4.8 million still represents a mere 1.2% of the amount that was originally stolen from Stake. However, CertiK was quick to identify and highlight the wallet addresses of the hackers associated with the Stake fiasco.
10.42 BTC was withdrawn to bc1qn…0wp5t which was then moved to bc1q7…n3z0z pic.twitter.com/DYcnzWxEMu
— CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) September 11, 2023
The series of transfers has been going on for a while now, and many predict that the exploiter might just disappear with these funds. Despite the transfer of a mere percentage, sums of almost $36 million are still being held on Ethereum, BNB, as well as Polygon. The hacker gained access to the private key of Stake’s Binance Smart Chain along with Ethereum hot wallets to initiate the hack. Currently, the FBI believes that the North Korean-based hacking group, Lazarus, is behind the exploit.
Stake Is Not the Only Victim of Such Exploits
The Stake was robbed of a whopping $41 million in the latest hack. Recent hacks throughout the crypto space have taken the total amount lost to almost $1 billion in 2023 so far. CertiK originally reported the exact figures to be around $997 million by the end of August but the recent exploits over the previous few weeks would push it well above the $1 billion mark.
In this month so far, a whale ended up losing almost $24 million in staked Ether following a phishing attempt. Similarly, Vitalik Buterin’s X account was also compromised and the hacker lured several victims into NFT scams, resulting in a loss of almost $691,000. Analysts suggest that these exploits would take CertiK’s figure to approximately $1.04 billion.
