The “Whale” Buying 27,553 ETH Overnight Was a Thief: ZachXBT Ties It to a Suspected $106 Million Crypto Hack
A suspected $106 million crypto hack of an EU entity’s exchange accounts came to light on Monday, November 2, when ZachXBT tied the 27,553 ETH bought overnight by a wallet many had read as a bullish whale to the stolen funds.At first, the buying looked like good news. At 01:17 UTC, Lookonchain flagged “whales buying ETH like crazy”, as wallet 0x9EcA spent $37.96 million of USDC on 16,658 ETH in two hours. By the time it stopped, it had spent $62.97 million at an average of $2,286.It was funded from at least three centralized exchange accounts. A map credited to ZachXBT, the investigator Specter and the analytics firm TRM shows the USDC leaving them on Sunday, passing through dozens of fresh wallets and landing in 0x9EcA.That swap mattered. Circle can freeze USDC at the issuer, but nobody can freeze ETH, so turning stablecoins into ETH within hours is a standard first move after a theft.No victim has been named, and no exchange has commented yet.Whales are buying like crazy on-chain!Over the past 2 hours, whale 0x9EcA spent 37.96M to buy 16,658 at an average price of $2,279.The whale is still buying! DISCOVER: Where Is the ETH From the Crypto Hack Now?Spread out, and partly still sitting. The Ethereum ledger shows 0x9EcA passing almost all of its ETH on within hours of buying it:Nov 1, 23:46 to Nov 2, 00:26 UTC: 15,085 ETH to wallet 0x65C3…b841, in eight transfers00:40 to 03:56 UTC: 12,033 ETH to wallet 0xBe95…a85a, in 25 transfers10:29 to 10:40 UTC: 0xBe95 empties into two new wallets, 6,217 ETH and 5,816 ETHWallet 0x65C3 is drip-feeding. It has sent 3,100 ETH to a wallet the investigators’ map shows bridging to Tron, 2,358 ETH to another address, and smaller amounts to at least seven more. It also sent test amounts to the SwftSwap and Rango cross-chain services.As of 14:35 UTC, it still held 7,844 ETH, about $18 million at today’s $2,290. 0x9EcA keeps another 310 ETH.Other parts of the $106 million crypto hack took different routes. The map shows USDC going straight to instant swap services and to Wagyu and Kyrrex, and some of it bridged out to Tron.EXPLORE: Could There Be Any Consequence for the Ethereum Price? Market Cap 24h7d30d1yAll Time That overnight bid was real money, but it won’t stay. ETH trades at $2,290, up 1% on the day and almost exactly at the thief’s $2,286 average, so the $62.97 million of buying added demand overnight.Now that ETH is a supply overhang. Bridges and swap services turn it into other coins, which means someone sells ETH on the other side of each hop, and roughly $18 million of it is still waiting in one wallet.DISCOVER: Follow 99Bitcoins on X For the Latest Market Updates, and Subscribe on YouTube For Daily Expert Market Analysis.The post The “Whale” Buying 27,553 ETH Overnight Was a Thief: ZachXBT Ties It to a Suspected $106 Million Crypto Hack appeared first on 99Bitcoins.