Did a $330 Million Scam Fuel Monero’s (XMR) 50% Price Surge? (ZachXBT Weighs In)

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Ah, what a delightful turn of events! It seems that a well-executed social engineering scam has resulted in a loss of over $330 million in BTC, straight from the pockets of an unsuspecting elderly investor in the United States. What a way to spend a weekend, right?

The Unfortunate Details of the Exploit

On April 28, the blockchain detective extraordinaire, ZachXBT, shared the fascinating (and rather tragic) findings. The stolen crypto—3,520 BTC, no less—was extracted from a wallet that had been as inactive as your great aunt’s bingo card since 2017. A real case of ‘dusting off the old wallet and, oops, it’s gone!’

To add to the excitement, the stolen funds didn’t just sit around; oh no! They moved swiftly through at least six centralized exchanges before making a dramatic conversion into Monero (XMR), a privacy coin that’s as elusive as your neighbor when you need to borrow sugar. This shift caused a 50% spike in the price of XMR due to a rather unfortunate combination of limited liquidity and a very heavy wallet.

But wait, there’s more! ZachXBT later uncovered that the victim was an elderly individual, blissfully unaware of the deceitful social engineering trap laid by the hackers. A phone call or email—who knows? These scams are as old as the internet itself, and somehow they still work like a charm. 🙄

Who’s Behind the Curtain?

Now, don’t you just love a good mystery? While the hackers remain as anonymous as a ghost at a costume party, ZachXBT has been doing some sleuthing. He tossed around a few theories, including one about North Korea’s Lazarus Group, but he ruled that out faster than you can say “not today, Kim.” Instead, he pointed fingers at independent bad actors, because, let’s face it, they seem to be everywhere.

This isn’t the first time our dear ZachXBT has uncovered such schemes this year. Just in February, he tracked a scam where Coinbase users lost crypto through similar tricks. Between December 2024 and January 2025, these individuals collectively lost a cool $65 million. Small change, really, compared to what we’re dealing with here.

Let’s talk numbers. The first quarter of 2025 was a disastrous one for the crypto world. PeckShield, a blockchain security firm, reported that over $1.6 billion in digital assets were stolen via hacks. The Bybit exploit alone made up a jaw-dropping 92% of those losses. The crypto community must have been thrilled. The total number of exploits included an $87 million theft in January, a $1.53 billion surge in February, and more incidents that added another $126 million in losses. Why stop at small change when you can go big?

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2025-05-04 22:23