Heco Bridge exploiters have laundered more than 145 million Dollars worth of ether using Tornado Cash

Crypto News– Hackers who took advantage of the Heco Bridge vulnerability last year have managed to launder over 40,000 ether, amounting to a staggering $145.7 million, using Tornado Cash over the course of the past eight days, as per on-chain data.

Heco Bridge exploiters have laundered more than 145 million Dollars worth of ether using Tornado Cash

The Heco Bridge serves as a conduit for transferring funds between Ethereum and the Heco Chain, which is a blockchain established by the HTX exchange, formerly known as Huobi. On the other hand, Tornado Cash functions as a cryptocurrency mixer, ensuring transaction privacy by concealing the origins and destinations of Ethereum transactions.

#PeckShieldAlert As of today (22 Mar. 2024, UTC), #HECOBridge exploiters – labeled addresses – have transferred ~$40,391.8 $ETH (equivalent to ~$145.7m) to #TornadoCash within the last 8 days pic.twitter.com/ZfrDvbRQCm

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) March 22, 2024

As reported by the blockchain security and data analytics firm PeckShield on X, the Heco Bridge exploiters have shifted approximately $40,391.8 ETH to Tornado Cash within the last 8 days, as of March 22, 2024, UTC.

HTX was also affected

The hack of the Heco Bridge in November 2023 led to a staggering loss of approximately $111 million on the very day it occurred, as detailed by PeckShield. According to previous reports by The Block, the stolen funds, consisting of ether, USDT, USDC, and HBTC, were promptly transferred to decentralized exchanges and exchanged for various other tokens.

Igor Igamberdiev, Wintermute’s Head of Research, highlighted a further breach involving HTX during the same period. He pointed to suspicious transfers amounting to $23.4 million, noting that these transactions exhibited similar patterns to those observed in the Heco Bridge hack and transpired shortly afterward. Notably, HTX initiated the movement of funds from a distinct hot wallet to what was identified as a recovery wallet, while also temporarily halting deposits and withdrawals.