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Hot Wallet Hack Worth 90 ETH Traced and Rectified
A crypto hack victim known as L3yum on a social platform called X, which was earlier known as Twitter, recently shared that their efforts to track and recover a significant crypto haul stolen from their hot wallet have been successful. Through collaboration with cybercrime units and the police, the crypto enthusiast was able to blacklist the Tether (USDT) address of the hacker who initially absconded with the funds on March 16.
The Stolen Funds and NFTs
The unlawful penetration into L3yum's hot wallet led to the siphoning off of various assets, including several Yuga Labs-linked nonfungible tokens (NFTs), a sizeable amount of cryptocurrency, and other NFTs from less widespread projects. The hacker didn't waste much time, swapping and vending off the stolen assets promptly.
Update on the Stolen Funds
L3yum recently disclosed on X that the hacker's Ethereum-linked USDT wallet has now been debited and blacklisted, thanks to the cooperative efforts of the police and cybercrime unit from their country.
However, it remains uncertain whether they will recoup the full amount lost in the hack.
The Value of the Blacklisted Wallet
With the current value of 90 ETH at approximately $166,000, it's worthwhile to note that the hijacker's blacklisted wallet carries a weight of about $107,306 worth of USDT. Based on this, it seems L3yum might not recover the full sum of their stolen crypto assets.
Possibility of Reimbursement
While the prospect of a refund remains uncertain, precedence in similar situations suggests that equal quantums of the asset may be reissued to the rightful owner once Tether has disposed of the blacklisted USDT. Importantly, such a step by Tether usually follows a legal directive or court order.
L3yum's Response to Reimbursement Query
In response to queries regarding potential reimbursement, L3yum revealed that the mentioned recourse seemed plausible, though its implementation has not been assured. Addressing the uncertainty around this process, they added, "My understanding is that blacklisted funds are essentially burnt, but don't quote me on that just yet!"
The Origin of the Breach
Uncertainty still clouds the initial breach of L3yum's seed as it remains ambiguous how the hacker obtained it back in March. The prevailing assumptions suggest L3yum fell prey to a SIM swap or inadvertently backed up their seed phrase on iCloud, or perhaps used the wallet across multiple devices.
