Drift Hack Wallet Sends $61M in ETH Through Tornado Cash
The North Korea-linked attacker behind April's $295 million Drift exploit moved 25,700 ETH through the mixer in two hours and still holds about $198 million more.
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Key takeaways
- A wallet tied to the April Drift exploit sent 25,700 ETH, roughly $61 million, to Tornado Cash.
- The transfers took about two hours.
- The attacker is linked to North Korea.
- Drift lost $295 million in the original heist.
- Around $198 million is still under the attacker's control.
The attacker behind April's $295 million Drift exploit is back at the laundromat. A wallet linked to the hack sent 25,700 ETH, about $61 million, through Tornado Cash in roughly two hours, according to Decrypt.
What happened
This wallet is tied to a North Korea-linked group. It shoved the Ether through the mixer in one tight window instead of dribbling it out over days or weeks. Fast. Deliberate.
And it's not the whole pile. The attacker still controls roughly $198 million, so don't assume this is the finale. It looks like the middle of the job.
The numbers
- Original theft: $295 million from Drift, in April.
- Just mixed: 25,700 ETH, about $61 million.
- Still held: about $198 million.
Why it matters
Six months on, the money's still moving, and mixers are still the exit ramp. You might think that's not your problem. It sort of is, just indirectly. Laundered sums eventually get cashed out, and when stolen funds touch exchanges, you get freezes and compliance headaches for everyone downstream. It also keeps the heat on privacy tools like Tornado Cash, and regulators love an example. The real question is how much of that remaining $198 million takes the same route, and whether anyone can stop it. So far, nobody has.
Source: Decrypt
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