On-chain investigator ZachXBT highlighted a “suspicious” transfer of 3520 BTC ($330.7 million), which is highly likely to be a theft of assets.
Nine hours ago a suspicious transfer was made from a potential victim for 3520 BTC ($330.7M)
Theft address
bc1qcrypchnrdx87jnal5e5m849fw460t4gk7vz55gShortly after the funds began to be laundered via 6+ instant exchanges and was swapped for XMR causing the XMR price to spike…
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) April 28, 2025
“Shortly after, the funds began to be laundered through instant exchanges on more than six platforms and converted into Monero, resulting in the XMR price spiking by 50%,” the expert noted.
ZachXBT confirmed that the incident was indeed a theft of assets. According to him, the user—an elderly person from the US—fell victim to social engineering.
Update: It is confirmed to be a social engineering theft from an elderly individual in the US.
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) April 30, 2025
During the brief rally, the price of the privacy-focused cryptocurrency reached $329. At the time of writing, the quotes had corrected to $267. Over the past day, the growth amounted to about 20%.
ZachXBT explained the signs that led him to suspect theft:
- The likely victim is a long-term Bitcoin holder and an experienced user who interacted with Gemini, River, Coinbase, and other platforms;
- Coins worth $330 million were suddenly broken into many small amounts with the creation of hundreds of orders;
- Fees spent on transactions reached “seven figures,” which is clearly unprofitable for regular operations.
that’s how you know it’s likely a theft
>longtime Bitcoin holder
>is a Gemini, River, Coinbase, etc user
>$330M suddenly moved today and transferred in small increments to instant exchanges, creating hundreds of orders
>gonna lose multiple 7 figs to fees / inefficient for…— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) April 28, 2025
The fees for atomic swaps used by the alleged perpetrator ranged from 1-3% of the exchange amount.
Amid the sharp rise in Monero’s price, other “anonymous” coins like ZCash (~12% in a day) and Dash (~11%) also saw price increases.
In 2024, Japanese police arrested suspects in credit card fraud thanks to analyzing their transactions in Monero. Prior to that, the National Bureau of Investigation of Finland managed to trace XMR linked to a hacker.