Blockchain investigator ZachXBT disclosed on Friday that a victim was drained of more than $282 million in BTC and LTC after falling for a sophisticated social engineering attack targeting a hardware wallet.
According to the report, the stolen assets were ultimately converted into Monero (XMR), a move that likely contributed to the sharp rally in the privacy coin that began last week. ZachXBT noted that a significant portion of the stolen bitcoin was routed through THORChain, where it was bridged across multiple networks, including Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin, before being swapped into XMR.
The incident sparked backlash within the crypto community after users highlighted THORChain’s posts on X, accusing its social media team of appearing to boast about facilitating illicit transactions. Others used the case to highlight the growing threat of social engineering scams, which can compromise even hardware wallet users. These schemes often involve fake profiles frequently posing as romantic interests to manipulate victims into granting access to their funds.
At the time of the theft, Monero was trading near $450. In the days that followed, XMR surged to a series of new all-time highs, peaking close to $800 on January 15. Since then, the token has pulled back sharply possibly as the attackers began cashing out and is now trading below $630.
