Hacks and scams have become increasingly common in the crypto space. The recent $100 million hack that hit Harmony caused excessive commotion in the market. The protocol’s Horizon bridge was compromised and several altcoins were stolen. While the platform offered a $1 million bounty to anyone who shared information pertaining to the exploit, the hacker clearly ignored this. The attacker went on to further move the stolen funds.
PeckShield took to Twitter and revealed that the exploiters had started laundering the stolen funds. It was noted that in a series of tweets, the hackers carried out three transactions. This transaction was sent out from the address that was involved in the previous hack.
These funds were further invested into Tornado Cash. A whopping 18,036 ETH worth nearly $21 million was moved from the Harmony hacker’s wallet. As seen in the above tweets, the funds were then distributed among three other wallets.
Tornado Cash is a name that pops up during hacks and attacks like this one. This platform allows users to disable a link in on-chain activity in order to spruce up privacy during transactions. Therefore, an array of hackers flock into Tornado Cash to cash out stolen funds.
The platform garnered significant backlashes. Several in the community went on to call Tornado Cash a perfect tool for thieves. A few others, however, implied that Harmony should have contacted Tornado Cash to block the address. However, the decentralized mechanism that Tornado Cash works on would make it nearly impossible for the platform to block accounts.
Harmony collaborates with the FBI
Right after the attack, Harmony Protocol affirmed that it would seek assistance from national authorities. Now, acknowledging the movement of stolen funds, Harmony said,
Additionally, Harmony revealed that it was still on board with having a discussion with the hacker. However, with the hacker already moving funds, communication with the hacker would be unlikely to occur.
“We will share as much as possible without jeopardizing the efforts of those working alongside our incident response team. We’re still willing to have a discussion with the hacker, but will continue the full investigation until resolution or the return of stolen funds.”