A hacker who focused the Uranium Finance DeFi platform in 2021 might have tried to launder their stolen crypto positive aspects through the use of “Magic: The Gathering” buying and selling playing cards.
Pseudonymous blockchain sleuth ZachXBT posted an X thread on Thursday which detailed a sequence of strikes by the hacker, who reportedly withdrew 11,200 ETH over the previous yr from Twister Money in 100 ETH increments.
The hacker subsequently engaged in a sequence of transactions, changing the withdrawn ETH to wrapped ETH (WETH) and transferring it to a special deal with. The person then exchanged it for USDC and proceeded to make the most of a portion of the funds to buy “Magic: The Gathering” buying and selling playing cards.
A portion of the funds was additionally deposited into centralized exchanges, particularly Kraken, Bitpay, and Coinbase.
The on-chain investigator identified that the extra steps taken, corresponding to depositing funds into centralized exchanges and the acquisition of buying and selling playing cards, may very well be strategic efforts to complicate the tracing of funds again to their unique supply.
This supply is probably going related to the 2021 exploit of the Uranium Finance decentralized alternate, when contemplating correlation in timing between the deposit of funds by the Uranium hacker into Twister Money and the next withdrawal by the person buying MTG card.
“In March 2023, the Uranium hacker deposited 52 X 100 ETH to Twister & this individual obtained 52 X 100 ETH,” ZachXBT mentioned. “March 6 & 14: Uranium Hacker deposits 52 X 100 ETH to Twister. March 7 & 15: Our individual withdrew enormous volumes from Twister.”
To buy the buying and selling playing cards, ZachXBT mentioned that the hacker first enlisted the providers of a U.S.-based dealer who, in flip, reached out to sellers on their behalf. After speaking with a number of sellers engaged within the transactions, ZachXBT found that the client was making substantial purchases, spending thousands and thousands on gadgets corresponding to starter decks, alpha units, and sealed packing containers.
Notably, the hacker overpaid by 5-10% for these things. The hacker despatched cryptocurrency upfront to the dealer, sustaining full anonymity and by no means disclosing their id to the sellers.
Uranium Finance, a decentralized finance platform based mostly on the Binance Sensible Chain and a fork of Uniswap, skilled a major lack of $50 million in a 2021 hack. A hacker exploited a calculation error within the platform’s code, enabling them to empty liquidity from the protocol.