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Hacker steals $282 million crypto from a victim in social-engineering attack
A sophisticated social-engineering attack led to the theft of more than $282 million in BTC and LTC, with the funds rapidly laundered through monero.
Updated Jan 16, 2026, 9:59 p.m. Published Jan 16, 2026, 6:56 p.m. 1 min read
What to know:
- The attacker is said to have stolen 2.05 million litecoin and 1,459 bitcoin on Jan. 10, quickly swapping most of the funds for monero, contributing to a 70% surge in XMR’s price over four days.
- Some of the bitcoin was bridged across multiple blockchains via Thorchain, but researcher ZachXBT said there are no indications the hack was linked to North Korean threat actors.
- The incident underscores a growing 2025 trend of social engineering as the dominant hacking method, coming days after Ledger disclosed a data leak exposing users’ personal information.
A hacker stole $282 million worth of litecoin and bitcoin following a hardware wallet social-engineering attack, according to blockchain researcher ZachXBT.
The victim lost 2.05 million LTC and 1,459 BTC, with the loot swiftly being swapped for privacy coin monero (XMR) through multiple instant exchanges.
A portion of the bitcoin was also bridged to Ethereum, Ripple and Litecoin via Thorchain, ZachXBT added. He said North Korean hackers were not involved.
The hack occurred on Jan. 10 at 23:00 UTC, sparking a 70% rise in the price of XMR over the subsequent four days.
It remains unclear whether the victim was a sole crypto holder or a company, but it follows a 2025 trend that puts social engineering as the top attack vector for hackers. A social engineering attack typically involves posing as an employee of a company and securing the trust of a victim before persuading them to send sensitive information, such as a private key or login details.
On Jan. 5, hardware wallet provider Ledger suffered a data leak stemming from unauthorized access to Ledger users' personal details like names and contact information.
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