Hackers Behind $41M Stake Heist Shift BNB, MATIC Tokens

The hackers behind the $41 million hack of crypto casino Stake have moved $328,000 million worth of Polygon (MATIC) and BNB (BNB) tokens in their latest move following the exploit. 

The hackers have so far moved $4.8 million in funds to different networks. 

The Stake Hack 

The crypto casino Stake was targeted by hackers on the 4th of September, with the casino losing $41 million worth of crypto assets during the exploit. After an investigation, the FBI released a statement pointing the blame at the dreaded North Korean hacker organization, the Lazarus Group, as the entity responsible for the hack. The gambling firm, backed by the Rapper Drake, initially described a batch of transactions as “unauthorized” before notifying users that a full-blown investigation was underway. 

During its investigation, the FBI listed dozens of wallet addresses containing the stolen funds. The hacker group funneled the stolen crypto across various networks, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polygon, and Binance Smart Chain. 

Stolen Funds On The Move 

Now, the stolen funds are on the move again after blockchain security firm CertiK stated that the hackers had moved $328,000 worth of MATIC and BNB. The most recent transfer was that of 300 BNB tokens worth $61,500 to an externally owned address. These were then bridged to the Avalanche blockchain on the 11th of September. Following this, a batch of 520,000 MATIC tokens were moved to Avalanche. CertiK revealed in a post on X. 

“We are seeing a further movement of funds from the Stake exploiter. 520k MATIC was swapped and bridged to Avalanche before being bridged to BTC as per other fund movements from the exploiter.”

The funds moved add to the $4.5 million worth of stolen funds that were already bridged to the Bitcoin blockchain in the form of BTC on the 7th of September, according to details released by blockchain security firm Arkham. 

“The Stake Hacker removed ~$41M from Stake Hot Wallets in a series of “unauthorized transactions” on Monday. Since then, the hacker has begun moving the funds cross-chain. Over the past 24 hours, the hacker has been gradually bridging funds to the BTC Blockchain using a series of new wallets on Polygon and Avalanche. They have so far bridged $4.5M to BTC addresses, with the remaining $36M still held on ETH/BNB/Polygon.”

It has also been revealed that the hacker gained access to the private keys of Stake’s Binance Smart Chain and Ethereum hot wallets to orchestrate the crippling hack. 

$1 Billion Lost To Scams And Hacks 

With the Stake hack resulting in a loss of $41 million, the amount of crypto lost to hackers and other malicious entities has crossed the $1 billion mark for 2023. CertiK had reported at the end of August that hackers stole around $997 million worth of crypto. Several attacks over the past few weeks, including the one on Stake, have pushed this figure far beyond the $1 billion mark. 

In the most recent hacks, a crypto whale lost $24 million in Staked ETH after falling victim to a phishing attack. Even Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin wasn’t spared after his X (formerly Twitter) account was hacked on the 9th of September. The hacker posted a malicious link on the hacked account’s feed, tricking several users into revealing their wallet details and managing to steal crypto assets worth $691,000. 

Other major hacks include Pepe’s rug pull incident, which led to losses worth over $13 million. Exactly Protocol was also exploited for around $7 million, while a security vulnerability on Balancer led to losses of $2.1 million.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.