Thousands of Ether From Ronin Exploit Moved to Tornado Cash, Data Show
More than 2,001 ether were moved Monday from addresses connected to the $625 million exploit, with about 70% passing to the privacy tool in the early hours, on-chain data show.
Apr 4, 2022 at 9:25 a.m. UTCUpdated May 11, 2023 at 5:28 p.m. UTC
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The exploiter behind Ronin’s unprecedented $625 million bridge attack from last week apparently moved some 1,400 ether (ETH) to privacy tool Tornado Cash on Monday morning during Asia hours, and then the remaining 600 ETH during European hours, on-chain data connected to the exploit’s addresses show.
- The main Ethereum address associated with the exploit sent more than 2,001 ETH in two transactions to a different address – labeled “Ronin Bridge Exploiter 8” on the tracking tool Etherscan – in early Asian hours, the data shows.
- Some 1,400 ETH were then sent to Tornado Cash over 14 transactions, the data shows. The moved ether was valued at over $4.9 million at writing time. The remaining 600 ether, valued at $2 million, was moved to Tornado Cash in European hours, the data show.
- The main wallet that holds stolen funds still has in excess of 173,000 ETH, valued at over $607 million, at writing time.
- Tornado enhances the privacy of transactions by breaking the on-chain link between a source and a destination address. This allows exploiters and hackers to mask their addresses while withdrawing illicitly gained funds.
- Several thousands of ether had previously been moved to other wallets, data apparently shows. Those transactions ranged from 1 ETH to over 10 ETH.
- Ronin Network was hit by a $625 million exploit last week that affected Ronin validator nodes for Sky Mavis, the publisher of the popular Axie Infinity game, and the Axie DAO.
- The attacker “used hacked private keys in order to forge fake withdrawals” from the Ronin bridge across two transactions, as seen on Etherscan, Ronin said in a blog post on Substack.
- Investigations are underway, with all former Sky Mavis validators said to have been replaced.
See also: So You’ve Stolen $600M. Now What?
UPDATE (April 4, 13:16 UTC): Updates story to reflect additional movement of ether out of Ronin Bridge Exploiter 8 address during European hours.
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Shaurya is the Deputy Managing Editor for the Data & Tokens team, focusing on decentralized finance, markets, on-chain data, and governance across all major and minor blockchains.