According to recent discoveries, Axie Infinity’s Ronin Bridge hackers moved the stolen assets worth $625 million from Ethereum to the Bitcoin network.
Blockchain investigator and developer ₿liteZero revealed via a Twitter thread that the transfer was completed using a network bridge and several crypto exchanges. In March, Ronin Network got hacked making it the ‘Largest Crypto Hack’ in history.
Previously, over 5,505 Ethereum worth $10M linked to the Ronin exploiter address were moved out using Tornado Cash, a virtual currency mixer. The transaction was carried out in 55 installments, with each batch transferring around 100 ETH.
Furthermore, portions of the assets have been transferred to exchanges such as FTX, Huobi, and Crypto.com, among others.
Also Read: Understanding the Crypto Mixer Tornado Cash
According to the most recent findings, the Ronin bridge attackers converted the remaining Ronin assets to renBTC using 1inch or Uniswap. renBTC is a Bitcoin wrapper over the Ethereum network driven by the Ren Protocol.
As Ren allows for the transfer of assets between blockchains, the hackers were able to connect the assets from Ethereum to the Bitcoin network.
According to BliteZero, the hackers then delivered the proceeds to crypto mixers like ChipMixer and Blender. Notably, the investigator discovered that the attackers received cash from CEXs using sanctioned Blender addresses.
In May, The U.S OFAC declared sanctions on Blender as it was used in the Ronin Network hack. According to the OFAC, the hackers Lazarus Group leveraged Blender to wash out $20.5 million funds out of over $625 million stolen from the Ronin bridge.
BliteZero is currently conducting additional research and keeping track of the stolen money flow. “Where’s the money? It is a mystery to be investigated, and I look forward to more progress being made,” he noted.
Currently, the U.S. regulators are tightening their oversight over privacy-focused tools like Blender, Tornado Cash, etc. The OFAC recently sanctioned Tornado Cash attributing the decision to the $625 million Axie Infinity’s Ronin hack, the $100 million Horizon Bridge hack, and the $190 million Nomad Bridge hack.
