Ronin Hackers Transferred $625M to Bitcoin Network

According to recent discoveries made by a blockchain investigator and developer who goes by the user handle of BliteZero, hackers associated with the Ronin group transferred $625 million worth of stolen money to the Bitcoin network. He has asserted that the findings of his study have demonstrated that hackers associated with Ronin moved the stolen money from the Ethereum network to the Bitcoin network.

To refresh your memory, the Ronin bridge was hacked in March, and the perpetrators sent $625 million in USDC and ETH to a cryptocurrency mixer called Tornado Cash that was built on Ethereum. This made it hard for the police to trace the assets’ previous location. Despite the success of Tornado, the hackers did not stop their efforts to conceal the transactions after that.

The Path to Financial Gain

According to BliteZero, he has been tracing the stolen cash and discovered that the perpetrators transferred all of the assets to the Bitcoin protocol via a network bridge and various crypto exchanges. This was discovered by BliteZero as he was tracking the stolen monies.

The Utilization Of Consolidated Trading Platforms
According to the blockchain investigator, after the hackers withdrawn assets from Tornado Cash, they transferred approximately 6,250 ETH, which is equivalent to $20.7 million, to controlled exchanges (CEXs) such as Binance, Huobi, and FTX before sending the funds to the North Korean cryptocurrency mixer Blender.

In May, the United States Treasury Department imposed sanctions on addresses associated with the Blender cryptocurrency mixer after determining that it assisted the Ronin cybercriminals in processing more than $20.5 million worth of stolen assets.

BliteZero made an interesting discovery when they discovered that the Ronin hackers used the vast majority of the sanctioned Blender addresses in order to collect cash after withdrawing it from CEXs. When the investigator followed the money, he discovered that the total amount that was taken from the exchanges was $20.72 million, which was consistent with the figure made by the United States Treasury.

Hackers associated with Ronin moved stolen funds totaling $625 million to the Bitcoin network.

The remaining assets were exchanged for renBTC by the hackers, who used either 1inch or Uniswap to complete the transaction. RenBTC is a bitcoin wrapper that is built on top of the Ethereum network and is driven by the Ren Protocol. Because Ren enables the transfer of wealth between blockchains, the cybercriminals were able to link the Ethereum platform’s holdings to the Bitcoin network.

After that, the majority of the profits were sent to cryptocurrency mixers like ChipMixer and Blender. These mixers include Blender and ChipMixer. They first transferred the funds to Blender, and then some of the funds were shifted to ChipMixer.

BliteZero remarked, as a way to wrap up their conversation on Twitter, that they are currently engaged in the process of reviewing the hackers, which they believe will be more challenging.

“Right now, I’m analyzing Ronin hackers, and the work that comes after this will be much more difficult. The question, “Where’s the money?” It is a puzzle that needs to be solved, and I can’t wait to see the results of the investigations that are conducted. “Thank you for taking the time to read my thread, and I wish you the best of luck,” the investigation concluded as they were drawing to a close.

“Right now, I’m analyzing Ronin hackers, and the work that comes after this will be much more difficult. The question, “Where’s the money?” It is a puzzle that needs to be solved, and I can’t wait to see the results of the investigations that are conducted. “Thank you for taking the time to read my thread, and I wish you the best of luck,” the investigator concluded as they were drawing to a close.