A hacker has pulled off a multimillion dollars heist, stealing $15.9 million from Coinbase Commerce by slipping past the platform’s anti-money laundering systems.
YOLO
The theft was uncovered by crypto investigator ZachXBT, who revealed that the hacker executed over 1,700 suspicious transactions in USDC before laundering the funds through Polygon and Ethereum.
The hacker, who goes by the alias Excite, has been flaunting their newfound wealth online with luxury purchases, and investigators believe they might be based in Denmark.
The attack kicked off months ago, back on April 21, with the stolen funds split across three different wallets, most of which are currently inactive.
Interestingly, the hacker partially revealed their face in social media photos, which could give investigators a lead.
Roast level extra high
This incident raises some pretty serious questions about how Coinbase’s AML system managed to miss the red flags.
Given Coinbase’s history of compliance issues, including a $50 million fine last year, this lapse has sparked concern among crypto users and commentators alike.
Many have heavily criticized Coinbase for being overly strict with legitimate users while failing to catch major criminal activities.
This hack is just one of several challenges for Coinbase. The platform has also faced scams where fraudsters impersonated Coinbase Support and had to halt Bitcoin payments due to operational hiccups.
One hacker or more hackers
ZachXBT hinted that there might be more players involved in this theft, considering how the stolen funds were distributed.
He emphasized the need to understand how the hacker bypassed Coinbase’s security measures, as this failure adds to a growing list of vulnerabilities for the platform.
As of now, the victim of this heist hasn’t come forward, making it tricky to gather more details about how exactly the breach occurred.
The investigation is ongoing, and we can expect more updates that might shed light on both the case and the hacker’s identity.
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