A Bitcoiner misplaced $91 million in a single transaction to a social engineering assault on Tuesday, with funds then despatched to a privacy-focused Bitcoin pockets, in accordance with blockchain investigator ZachXBT.
The sufferer was deceived by impostors posing as crypto alternate and {hardware} pockets help, dropping 783 Bitcoin (BTC) in a single transaction, ZachXBT said in an X publish on Thursday.
Blockchain information shows the theft occurred on Tuesday at 11:06 am UTC, and the exploiter began laundering the stolen funds a day later via the Bitcoin privacy-focused Wasabi Pockets to hide the path of the stolen funds, ZachXBT mentioned.
Social engineering assaults contain attackers tricking individuals into revealing delicate data, akin to their personal keys or passwords, permitting attackers to steal the funds. These exploits have been rampant in crypto, concentrating on everybody from refined crypto buyers to the aged.
Asked how one can keep away from being socially engineered, ZachXBT mentioned to imagine each name or e-mail acquired is a “rip-off by default.”
ZachXBT guidelines out North Korea hackers
Whereas ZachXBT didn’t title any suspects, he dominated out the infamous North Korean state-backed Lazarus Group as a possible wrongdoer.
The attacker acquired the funds at a clear Bitcoin wallet address — ‘bc1qyxyk’ — earlier than utilizing Wasabi Pockets’s privateness options to attempt to conceal them.
ZachXBT added that, coincidentally, the assault occurred precisely one yr after the $243 million Genesis creditor theft.
Scammers impersonating {hardware} crypto pockets suppliers
Scammers have ceaselessly impersonated crypto {hardware} pockets suppliers akin to Ledger and Trezor utilizing refined strategies.
In late April, scammers impersonating Ledger sent out letters posing as the corporate, asking customers for secret restoration phrases to crypto wallets in an try and take management of the machine.
They claimed a “crucial safety replace” wanted to be carried out on their units and that failure to conform could “end in restricted entry to your pockets and funds.”
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In the identical month, an aged US citizen lost over $330 million price of Bitcoin to a social engineering assault, sending shockwaves via the trade.
Crypto theft continues to be a multibillion-dollar trade
Greater than $2.1 billion was stolen from crypto-related assaults throughout the primary 5 months of 2025, with the majority of losses coming from pockets compromises and phishing assaults, blockchain safety agency CertiK mentioned in June.
The biggest incident by far was the $1.4 billion exploit of crypto alternate Bybit in February, highlighting that even massive, extensively audited crypto platforms stay in danger.
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