Damage from second Ethereum Classic 51% attack in a week estimated at $1.68 million

As a result the second 51% attack in five days on the Ethereum Classic cryptocurrency, a section of the network 4,236 blocks deep was reorganised. This allowed its organiser to carry out double spends totalling $1.68 million, according to a new Bitquery report.

According to researchers, in total the attacker attempted to re-spend 465,444 ETC (~$3.3 million at the current rate), but was only able to do so successfully with 238,306 ETC. Additionally, he mined 14,200 ETC as rewards for found blocks.

The attacker appears to have rented computing power on the NiceHash marketplace to execute his plan. To perform the double-spend, he used coins seized in the previous attack.

Price and TH/s on NiceHash during the first and second attacks

The address to which the attacker sent part of the stolen coins (143,000 ETC in several transactions) Bitquery linked to the Bitfinex exchange. The other portion (95,650 ETC) he sent to a wallet of a service that had not yet been established.

The lead Ethereum Classic developer ETC Labs announced a partnership with the investigations-focused law firm Kobre & Kim and the analytics service CipherTrace. Together they aim to locate the organiser of the latest attacks and bring him to account.

“A sad side effect for the blockchain revolution has been the rise of criminals using public blockchains for illicit purposes. Nevertheless there are numerous legal avenues that victims can use to quickly and effectively restore justice. Together with ETC Labs we intend to deploy these avenues,” said Benjamin Souter of Kobre & Kim.

ETC Labs representatives added that they are cooperating with the community, stakeholders and technical teams to stabilise and strengthen the network.

Earlier in July last year, another 51% attack on the ETC network occurred. The damage was estimated at $460,000. The hacker later returned part of the stolen funds to Gate.io.

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