- Monero's XMR token jumped 38% Sunday.
- A suspected hacker converted $330 million in Bitcoin into the asset.
The price of Monero’s XMR jumped 38% Sunday after a suspected hacker swapped $330 million in Bitcoin into the token, according to a crypto sleuth.
At 10:11 pm London time, the hacker began moving the Bitcoin hoard from the potential victim’s wallet to six different exchanges where it was swapped for XMR, said the pseudonymous investigator who goes by ZachXBT.
It’s not clear where the funds went from there, or who was responsible.
The swaps pushed XMR to $317, its highest price since 2021.
“This incident is a theft,” Yehor Rudytsia, an onchain researcher at Hacken, told DL News. “We saw the first part of the laundering being executed via instant exchanges such as FixedFloat. Stolen Bitcoin was distributed already across 100+ wallets.”
“All major forensic agencies are tracking the situation.”
Monero, unlike most other crypto assets, is untraceable, as long as users aren’t lax about their security.
Monero’s commitment to privacy has earned it a cult following among privacy advocates. It has also come under scrutiny from global watchdogs for its ease of use among criminals and money launderers.
This situation is strange, however, because despite the Monero blockchain’s ability to hide transaction details, it isn’t typically used to launder such large amounts.
That’s because the blockchain’s native token, XMR, isn’t very liquid. This means that when large amounts of another token are swapped for XMR, it quickly moves the price, giving the swapper a worse conversion rate on the trade.
In Europe, regulators are looking to ban crypto assets like Monero’s XMR, which enhance anonymity. Several crypto exchanges, including Binance, OKX, and Kraken last year delisted XMR across multiple jurisdictions, contributing to the low liquidity.
Monero volatility
Monero’s XMR has since fallen from its $317 high.
On Monday, the token was still up 22% from its price before the incident, to around $280.
It’s the biggest single-day swing in XMR’s price in years. The token typically trades in a tight range and is less volatile than many other cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin or Ethereum.
‘Hundreds of orders’
Additional reasons suggest that the incident was a theft, and not just a large Bitcoin holder converting their funds.
The Bitcoin belonged to a long-term holder, who doesn’t have a history of suddenly swapping large amounts into other cryptocurrencies.
The victim has held over 3,000 Bitcoin since 2017 and started to move funds just one month ago, Rudytsia said, adding that such details allude to the possibility that the theft could be due to a social engineering attack.
ZachXBT and Rudytsia flagged that the funds were transferred in small increments to exchanges, creating hundreds of orders. DL News confirmed his onchain analysis.
Hackers often split up funds like this when attempting to obfuscate their origin in money laundering schemes.
There are also less costly ways of swapping Bitcoin into Monero that the holder could’ve used if the transactions weren’t a theft.
[They’re] gonna lose multiple seven figures to fees,” ZachXBT said. “Inefficient for a normal person to buy like this.”
Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@dlnews.com.
