Huge scam targeting hard wallets stole $2.5 billion: Details

Yesterday Friday, well-known blockchain researcher “ZachXBT” revealed that one of the victims was exposed to a social engineering scam related to hardware wallets, resulting in a loss of more than $282 million in Bitcoin and Litecoin.

The attackers reportedly converted the stolen funds into Monero (XMR), which is seen as a factor in the privacy coin’s surge over the past week.

ZachXBT added that most of the stolen Bitcoins were transferred through THORChain to other networks and assets such as Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin.

The issue sparked rapid controversy within the crypto community, especially after some people interacted with the “THORChain” post on the X platform.

Some followers accused the platform of treating the incident as an achievement, while others highlighted that this type of fraud proves that even hard wallets are not immune if fraudsters manage to trick their victims and extract sensitive information.

Social engineering attacks often rely on impersonation and establishing false trust, then prompting the victim to take incorrect steps, such as sharing data or consenting to a transfer.

It is sometimes spread through fake accounts that lure victims in an emotional or seductive way.

Before the move to Monero began, XMR was trading near $450 before jumping to successive all-time peaks within a few days, the last of which was on January 15 when it was near $800.

But the currency has since fallen sharply, possibly after the attackers liquidated some of their gains, and is currently trading below $630.

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