OVER $44 MILLION WORTH OF ETHER MOVED BY HARMONY ATTACKER
Reports getting to CryptoUnfold show that the Harmony protocol has decided to partner with the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and two other Blockchain tracing firms to analyze the attack on the Harmony network as of last week and also bring the culprit or the culprits to book. More details are following.
The Harmony Network is a Blockchain protocol that was launched in 2019. The network runs on Shards; four parallel blockchain networks. This was structured to reduce 1000% of latency.
Validators on the Harmony network are regulated by a random assignment of shards and limiting the size of their stakes.
The layer-1 blockchain built is moved by the ethos of resolving the issue of the blockchain trilemma of balancing scalability with security and as well decentralization.
As recorded, the attacker behind the million-dollar exploit on the network moved a million dollars worth of cryptocurrency funds as of Monday night.
Harmony also made this known in a tweet via its Twitter handle, stating that it was aware that the hacker had begun moving funds through Tornado Cash.
It reassured users that the team was partnering with two reputable blockchain tracing and analysis firms, in conjunction with the FBI, to investigate the hack.
The hacker’s wallet which has already been marked “Horizon Bridge Exploiter” has moved over 36thousand Ether(ETH) which is valued at over $44Million in the last 30 hours.
The exploiter moved about 18 thousand ether (ETH) on Monday, valued at $22 million at the time of documentation, into three different wallets. These stolen funds were later sent to Tornado Cash. Why Tornado Cash?
Tornado Cash
Tornado Cash happens to be a privacy tool built on Ethereum, providing noncustodial privacy solutions.
The decentralized platform enhances high-level privacy of transactions by breaching the on-chain link between source and destination address. This feature gives hackers and exploiters an excellent ground to hide their addresses while performing withdrawals of their loot.
The hacker moved another 18thousand ether (ETH) to yet another wallet. From this holding, another 6 thousand (ETH) was moved to another crypto wallet with the address “0x89f89d61644c6e606efb25a01210159f102fbd8b”
Data records further showed funds were sent to privacy swap service Tornado Cash in separate batches having 100 ether(ETH) deposits.
The actual crypto wallet however still holds a total of over 49 thousand ether (ETH), valued at 59 million dollars. While the Harmony network continues to peruse through the incident, it’s a native token; ONE records a drop in price by 9% as of the time of documentation.
