The hackers behind the Coincheck hack are set to walk away with millions as around 40% of the stolen NEM tokens have already been laundered. There were significant hurdles hackers had to overcome as coordinated efforts by exchanges around the country helped to blacklist the majority of stolen funds. Furthermore, the hackers are reported to have made use of dark web services to wash the stolen funds.
The hack was the result of weeks of planning as suspicious traffic was reported. The fruit was essentially the private key to the hotwallet of the exchange. Giving hackers unrestricted access to all the funds stored in the wallet, it was only a matter of time before it was emptied.
News aren’t too bad for the victims of the hack as Coincheck have begun the process of refunding affected users. Adding to the recovery of the brand, Coincheck is also complying with government instructions to tighten up security measures and patch any vulnerabilities/exploits which could potentially cause another breach. In another positive gesture, the exchange also committed to providing 83 Cents for each token. Considering the token is barely worth 44 cents a piece, this comes as a generous premium for many victims by the exchange in a attempt to match market prices closer to the hack.
The aftermath
To conclude, the hackers behind the multi million dollar Coincheck breach have officially cleaned well over 40% of their haul. Making it essentially untraceable to the majority of investigators and crypto users, the stolen haul has been transferred to bitcoin for the majority. While many claim the hackers will simply cashout the bitcoin into fiat, the impact on the markets is already being felt. Considering NEM prices have fallen dramatically, bitcoin prices too have been wavering amid the news, falling well over 5% over the past 24 hours at the time of writing.
