Researcher Traces $100 Million Laundering Scheme Linked to Ledger Supply-Chain Attack

A researcher has traced approximately $100 million in stolen cryptocurrency linked to a supply-chain attack on Ledger hardware wallets, which were sold through CryptoBilis. The analysis revealed that the theft involved around $103.4 million in assets spread across roughly 530 addresses on seven different blockchains. Notably, about 75% of the stolen funds were held in Tether (USDT) on the Tron network, with additional amounts in Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC). Tether has since frozen $10 million of the stablecoin associated with the theft.

The researcher, known as Tayvano, emphasized that the privacy features of Zcash, a cryptocurrency designed to conceal transaction details, remained intact during the investigation. The tracing was made possible by analyzing gas payments made from an affiliated wallet, which connected various addresses involved in the laundering scheme. This method allowed investigators to map the attacker’s infrastructure without compromising the underlying cryptographic protections of Zcash.

The incident highlights the challenges of recovering stolen cryptocurrency, as the attacker employed strategies to obscure the funds' origins, including scattering them across multiple addresses and utilizing privacy tools. The findings underscore the importance of metadata in investigations, as patterns in transaction fees and timing can reveal connections between addresses, even when the transactions themselves are shielded from public view. The outcome of this tracing effort will depend on the ability to recover the stolen assets and whether the identified ETH and BTC can be frozen or seized.

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Source: KLEA News