The attacker then used THORChain to swap the funds.
Fashionable on-chain investigator ZachXBT revealed on Friday {that a} sufferer misplaced over $282 million price of BTC and LTC on account of a {hardware} pockets social engineering rip-off.
The stolen funds have been transformed to Monero (XMR), which was among the many causes behind the asset’s huge worth enhance that started final week. The on-chain sleuth added that a big portion of the swiped BTC was bridged to Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin by way of THORChain.
On January 10, 2026 at round 11 pm UTC a sufferer misplaced $282M+ price of LTC & BTC on account of a {hardware} pockets social engineering rip-off.
The attacker started changing the stolen LTC & BTC to Monero by way of a number of on the spot exchanges inflicting the XMR worth to extend sharply.
BTC was additionally…
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) January 16, 2026
The crypto neighborhood was fast to choose up THORChain’s posts on X. Some members blamed the platform’s social media workforce for bragging about enabling and even “celebrating” crime.
Others outlined the hazards of social engineering scams, which put even funds on {hardware} wallets in danger. Such scams are sometimes carried out by way of faux accounts impersonating a sexy lady who has immediately fallen for the sufferer, despite the fact that they’ve by no means met.
On the time of the occasion and earlier than the swaps to XMR started, the privateness coin traded at round $450. It exploded to consecutive all-time highs within the following days, with the most recent occurring on January 15 when it approached $800.
Since then, XMR has retraced closely, maybe because the attackers offloaded a number of the proceeds, and now sits under $630.
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