A crypto user lost more than $282 million worth of Bitcoin and Litecoin in one of the largest social engineering attacks ever recorded in the crypto sector.
The theft occurred on January 10, 2026, around 23:00 UTC, after the victim was tricked into revealing his passphrase associated with a hardware wallet, according to to blockchain researcher ZachXBT. The attacker gained full control of the wallet and quickly moved the funds across multiple networks to cover their tracks.
According to ZachXBT, 2.05 million Litecoins (LTC), which are currently worth $153 million, and 1,459 Bitcoins (BTC), which are now worth about $139 million, were unloaded. The attacker immediately began converting the stolen assets into Monero (XMR) through several instant exchange services, which also caused the price of XMR to spike.
In parallel, large chunks of Bitcoin were bridged over Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP) and Litecoin using THORChain, a move that allowed an attacker to transfer value between blockchains without relying on centralized exchanges. The activity reignited the debate about how decentralized cross-chain infrastructure can be abused during large-scale thefts.
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Frozen 700 thousand dollars of stolen funds
In a post on LinkedIn on Friday, security firm ZeroShadow he said he was able to track and flag parts of the stolen stream in real time after being alerted by blockchain monitoring teams. Within about 20 minutes, about $700,000 worth of funds were reportedly frozen before they could be fully exchanged for privacy-focused assets.
ZeroShadow claimed to have identified the victim as a Bitcoin address “belonging to an individual who was tricked into sharing his seed phrase by an actor posing as a Trezor “Value Wallet” supporter.”
ZachXBT also rejected claims that the attack could be linked to a state-sponsored hacking group. “It’s not North Korea,” he said wrote.
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An elderly American Bitcoin owner lost $330 million
Last year, an elderly American individual allegedly fell victim to the theft of $330 million worth of Bitcoins in another major social engineering scam. The victim held more than 3,000 BTC since 2017 with little prior activity, according to blockchain data.
Once the funds were moved, the attacker quickly laundered the Bitcoin using peel chains and multiple instant exchanges, eventually exchanging much of the stolen BTC for Monero to cover his tracks.
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