Monero likely pumped 50% due to suspected $330M Bitcoin theft: ZachXBT
Onchain sleuth ZachXBT has flagged a suspicious switch involving 3,520 Bitcoin (BTC), valued at $330.7 million, that will point out a significant theft. The transaction, reported on April 28, noticed funds moved from a possible sufferer’s pockets to the deal with bc1qcry…vz55g.
Following the switch, the stolen stash was shortly laundered by over six instantaneous exchanges and swapped into privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero (XMR).
The large-scale conversion led to a 50% spike in XMR’s value with the token reaching an intraday excessive of $339, in accordance to knowledge from CoinMarketCap.
At the time of writing, XMR has settled barely however stays up 25% previously 24 hours, buying and selling at $289.
When requested whether or not North Korea’s Lazarus Group was behind the assault, ZachXBT dismissed the idea, stating it was “highly probable it’s not,” suggesting unbiased hackers had been accountable.
Related: Kraken to finish Monero assist in European Economic Area
Vast majority of hackers use mainstream cryptos
In a current remark to Cointelegraph, Chainalysis famous that the majority legal transactions nonetheless depend on mainstream cryptocurrencies.
“While there are concerns of more criminals moving to privacy coins for anonymity, the vast majority of criminal activity still uses mainstream cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and stablecoins,” Chainalysis stated.
The agency added that these property stay engaging as a result of they provide the identical advantages to dangerous actors as they do to reputable customers — cross-border performance, instantaneous settlement, and excessive liquidity.
Chainalysis famous that privateness cash pose limitations for criminals due to diminished liquidity and the truth that many main exchanges have delisted property like Monero.
“Cryptocurrency is only useful if you can buy and sell goods and services or cash out into fiat, and that is much more difficult with privacy coins, especially as many mainstream exchanges have offboarded the use of privacy coins, such as Monero,” they defined.
The agency even stated that blockchain transparency permits legislation enforcement to hint and recuperate illicit funds, whatever the cryptocurrency used.
In 2024, a leaked Chainalysis video prompt that Monero transactions may very well be traceable regardless of the privacy-preserving nature of the blockchain.
The video reportedly confirmed how Chainalysis might observe transactions again to 2021 through its personal “malicious” Monero nodes.
Related: The IRS provides a $625,000 bounty to anybody who can break Monero and Lightning Network
Monero accepted at Spar shops in Switzerland
The suspected laundering operation comes as Monero is gaining wider retail acceptance. Two Spar grocery store places in Switzerland not too long ago started accepting XMR for funds.
The announcement, shared by Monero’s official X account, credit partnerships with DFX Swiss and OpenCryptoPay for enabling the mixing.
One person, posting on April 25, shared their expertise of buying natural cacao utilizing XMR at a Spar retailer in Kreuzlingen.
In April 2025, Spar first tapped into the crypto market by introducing Bitcoin funds by the Lightning Network at shops in Zug, Switzerland.
Magazine: Bitcoin $100K hopes on ice, SBF’s mysterious jail transfer: Hodler’s Digest, April 20 – 26
