According to the Blockchain forensics firm Ciphertrace report, funds obtained by the Twitter hackers in the ‘giveaway’ scam have been moved to peer-to-peer (P2P) exchanges and crypto gambling sites. The report revealed that 0.2 Bitcoin had been transferred to a P2P exchange via a ‘peel chain,’ also used by the hackers to move funds to a crypto casino. Hackers are using methods to launder their funds received from the Twitter breach in a way so the authorities can not trace them.
North Korean hackers have laundered more than $100 million using peel chains.
Peel chains comprise chains of wallets that funds incrementally pass through to obfuscate the movement of illicitly obtained cryptocurrencies. The tactic is believed to be used widely by North Korean hackers with Ciphertrace estimating that Chinese nationals linked to North Korea have laundered more than $100 million using peel chains. An earlier report had revealed that Twitter hackers had established several peel chains to move the stolen funds onto a variety of crypto exchanges, P2P marketplaces, and gambling platforms. The security firm also noted sums of between roughly 0.1 and 0.15 BTC being moved to crypto exchanges in India, the United States, and Turkey.
The blockchain analysis firm has identified 18 transactions in total made by the hackers to various crypto platforms, including more than 1 BTC that was sent to a regulated exchange in Singapore.
The FBI investigates the Twitter hack.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is currently investigating the major Twitter hack that occurred last week. Hackers had managed to access the accounts of high profile famous people, including the former president of the USA Barack Obama, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Kanye West, Joe Biden, and many others. Hackers had put out tweets from these compromised accounts to solicit bitcoins. Twitter revealed that the hackers had downloaded data from eight compromised accounts. However, those eight accounts were unverified. The FBI is also investigating the major Twitter hack.
