Market Analysis Report (23 Feb 2022)

Republished By Plato

Followers: 0

The hacker behind one of the most significant incidents in cryptocurrency history, that has gone unsolved for nearly six years, may have been found. Journalist Laura Shin has said she may have discovered the person who siphoned 3.6 million ether (ETH) worth over $9 billion at current prices, from The DAO.

In 2016, The DAO hacker exploited a flaw to steal 31% of the total ETH committed to it, which was equivalent to around 5% of the cryptocurrency’s circulating supply at the time. The flaw allowed the attacker to slowly drain funds from The DAO to newly created DAOs, although vigilant community members could join those DAOs to stop them from withdrawing.

To stop the attacker from getting away with the hack, Ethereum’s developer ended up splitting the chain in two through a hard fork that resulted in the creation of Ethereum Classic (ETC), which the hacker was left holding.

Shin detailed that blockchain transactions showed the hacker moved ETC to ShapeShift, which at the time did not impose know-your-customer checks, to trade some funds for BTC, which was then mixed through a CoinJoin wallet to hide its trail in the blockchain.

In her report, Shin claims blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis was able to de-mix the transactions and trace the BTC to centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, which had accounts registered with the email of the alleged hacker. Chainalysis confirmed it “helped trace the funds despite the attacker’s attempts to cover his tracks w/ mixers.”

Detailing her findings, Shin pointed to the co-founder and chief financial officer of Europe-pegged stablecoin project Mimo Capital, Toby Hoenisch, who denied being involved in the hack.

Time Stamp: February 23, 2022