Image Source
Interference or real rescue of Coinbase? - COINBASE has just publicly announced its intervention in the hack that hit Twitter on July 13. The American exchange platform would have prevented the sending of 30.4 bitcoins to the address used by hackers.
Generalized arbitrage
During the famous attack which undermined Twitter, more than 130 accounts of famous personalities ( Barack Obama, Elon Musk , Kanye West ,…) were compromised. After distributing a message promising to return double the bitcoins sent by the victims, the hackers managed to steal the equivalent of $ 121,000 in BTC.
According to the security officer at Coinbase , the stolen sum could have been more substantial. Indeed, according to his words, if the American exchange had not decided to intervene , "it is 30.4 additional bitcoins which would have landed in the hands of criminals".
The decision was made after seeing that $ 3,000 worth of bitcoins had already left the platform to fill the hackers' wallets . Brian Armstrong and his team decided to block all transactions to the offending address.
This is more than 1000 customers who could not send their transactions and who therefore escaped the scam. Gemini, Kraken and Binance have also decided to do this.
The hunt continues
Behind the scenes, blockchain surveillance companies are busy and scrupulously monitoring the transactions of the hacker (s). They want to support the authorities' investigations and understand who is behind this large-scale attack.
At first glance, the individual (s) did not appear to be seasoned hackers . They had limited the use of mixing services and much of the stolen funds had passed through exchanges.
Since then, the situation has possibly changed: Larry Cernak of The Block pointed out on Twitter that the moving funds seemed to have been restructured in several wallets , perhaps each controlled by different people and quite distinct from the original hackers. A portion of the funds would have also been passed to the Wasabi Wallet bitcoin mixer .
At Binance , it is claimed that “a small amount of bitcoins (equivalent to $ 10) was sent to an address on the platform. It seems that the pirates want to cover their tracks. " .
The case is therefore far from being finalized. The attitude of exchange platforms and their ability to block transactions have, meanwhile, led to mixed reactions in the crypto community.
Please feel free to subscribe to CryptoPlanet360 on Youtube to get the latest videos about Crypto projects and Blockchain
Subscribe here: https://bit.ly/2NSkrOU
You are Welcomed to Follow my new Space about Crypto and Blockchain. It is a well organized and educative space:
Follow this link: https://www.quora.com/q/cryptoplanet360
