Hacker moves $182K in ETH to Tornado Cash after Voltage exploit

A hacker linked to the 2022 Voltage Finance exploit transferred 100 Ether (CRYPTO:ETH), valued at approximately $182,783, to the Tornado Cash (CRYPTO:TORN) mixer after a period of inactivity, according to blockchain security firm CertiK.

The address used for the transfer had been dormant for 166 days since November before the recent transaction, as shown by Etherscan data.

The exploit occurred in March 2022 when the attacker exploited a vulnerability in the ERC677 token standard’s callback function, enabling a reentrancy attack that drained Voltage Finance’s lending pool, CertiK reported.

Voltage Finance confirmed that the hacker stole various assets, including stablecoins USDC (CRYPTO:USDC) and BUSD, Wrapped Bitcoin (CRYPTO:WBTC), and Ethereum tokens.

Following the incident, the attacker’s address was flagged on Etherscan, and exchanges were requested to block transactions involving it.

Voltage Finance also attempted to contact the hacker to negotiate a bounty for the return of the stolen funds.

In a separate incident on March 18, 2023, Voltage Finance’s Simple Staking pools were exploited, resulting in a loss of $322,000.

The protocol offered a $50,000 bounty for the return of these funds and identified a developer possibly linked to the attack.

“While we haven’t confirmed if he is the hacker, as a precaution, we revoked his access immediately and filed police reports to collaborate with law enforcement and centralised exchanges,” Voltage Finance stated.

Crypto thefts increased significantly in April 2023, with losses rising 1,163% compared to previous months, largely due to a single high-profile hack involving 3,520 Bitcoin stolen from an elderly individual’s wallet.

Excluding that event, losses still rose 21% from March to $34 million.

However, some stolen funds were recovered, including $18 million returned by the hacker behind a $7.5 million KiloEx (CRYPTO:KILO) exploit and $5 million recovered by the ZKsync Association after an airdrop contract breach.

At the time of reporting, the Tornado Cash (TORN) price was $7.89.