Binance Hackers Bombard Chipmixer to Launder at Least 4,836 BTC

[dul48]

At least 4,836 Bitcoin (BTC) of stolen from Binance exchange in May 2019 was laundered through crypto mixing service Chipmixer.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/binance-hackers-bombard-chipmixer-to-launder-at-least-4-836-btc

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[serjent05]

This is bad for Chipmixer.  If the authority decided to investigate on this and targeted Chipmixer to shutdown regardless of the investigation, they can easily do it since they have a proof in their hand that a mixing service had been used to launder a hacked BTC.  I wonder why Chipmixer did not suspend those transactions.., Did they failed to track that those BTC were hacked?

[Kakmakr]

This is a very stupid move and it might lead to the hacker being caught a lot quicker. A mixer service takes your coins and mix them with other people's coins, but the larger the amount of coins being mixed, the higher the chances that those coins might be mixed by the coins being send. It is rumoured that mixing services are less anonymous with larger amount of coins being mixed. 

So let's hope this backfires on them and that they dug their own grave by doing this.    The companies tracking these coins, might just have received a jackpot from these hackers bombarding a single mixer service with a lot of coins. 

[Tipstar]

Bad news for Chipmixer, they are the only legit established large sized mixer left after the closer of many. This move would certainly bring them in for investigation as it's a criminal case.
This could lead to the end of bitcoin mixing services and enforce more regulations on exchanges and tradings.

[serjent05]

This is a very stupid move and it might lead to the hacker being caught a lot quicker. A mixer service takes your coins and mix them with other people's coins, but the larger the amount of coins being mixed, the higher the chances that those coins might be mixed by the coins being send. It is rumoured that mixing services are less anonymous with larger amount of coins being mixed. 

Indeed, for sure Chipmixer will cooperate to the authority to trace the hacker.  I believe Chipmixer will protect their name and will have a wise decision regarding this incident.  Mixing service have records of their transaction though they keep it private.

So let's hope this backfires on them and that they dug their own grave by doing this.    The companies tracking these coins, might just have received a jackpot from these hackers bombarding a single mixer service with a lot of coins. 

It will definitely backfire to the hackers.

[hatshepsut93]

Indeed, for sure Chipmixer will cooperate to the authority to trace the hacker.  I believe Chipmixer will protect their name and will have a wise decision regarding this incident.  Mixing service have records of their transaction though they keep it private.

Chipmixer is in a bad spot right now, if they give the data to authorities, they will lose some customers, both criminals and just people who don't trust governments. If they don't cooperate, they will risk getting closed, and they will have reputation of a service that launders dirty money, and some users might be scared that the coins that they get will be tainted.

[Saint-loup]

This is a very stupid move and it might lead to the hacker being caught a lot quicker. A mixer service takes your coins and mix them with other people's coins, but the larger the amount of coins being mixed, the higher the chances that those coins might be mixed by the coins being send. It is rumoured that mixing services are less anonymous with larger amount of coins being mixed. 

Indeed, for sure Chipmixer will cooperate to the authority to trace the hacker.  I believe Chipmixer will protect their name and will have a wise decision regarding this incident.  Mixing service have records of their transaction though they keep it private.

So let's hope this backfires on them and that they dug their own grave by doing this.    The companies tracking these coins, might just have received a jackpot from these hackers bombarding a single mixer service with a lot of coins. 

It will definitely backfire to the hackers.

They can't openly collaborate with the authorities, otherwise nobody will use their services anymore.
And BTW which authorities are you talking about?  Are you sure there is at least one authority investigating the case?
If it's just the singaporean authorities, I don't think Chipmixer will care very much about them...

[rdluffy]

Indeed, for sure Chipmixer will cooperate to the authority to trace the hacker.  I believe Chipmixer will protect their name and will have a wise decision regarding this incident.  Mixing service have records of their transaction though they keep it private.

Chipmixer is in a bad spot right now, if they give the data to authorities, they will lose some customers, both criminals and just people who don't trust governments. If they don't cooperate, they will risk getting closed, and they will have reputation of a service that launders dirty money, and some users might be scared that the coins that they get will be tainted.

Yes, when I read this thread, the same thought occurs, it's a bad situation to Chipmixer
If I were the owner of Chipmixer I would not know what to do, but honestly, I think I would be at Binance side and trying to help them in this case, because anonymity is different than illegal

[coolcoinz]

They can't openly collaborate with the authorities, otherwise nobody will use their services anymore.

They can't also cooperate unopenly. If somebody were to leak it (like a former employee) it would be even worse for the mixer.
Should they stop mixing stolen coins? Should they let the police know? Should they contact Binance and lock the funds? All these things will undermine the goal of their business, which is providing anonymous and safe mixing services. Hackers or not, they are clients who are paying Chipmixer to do their job. This job is not to trace every coin to its source before mixing it.

[dothebeats]

This surely is a bad light for Chipmixer now, although I believe that they won't openly cooperate and maintain full control of their mixing operations, but the main question is until when? They are a decent mixing service and a trusted name at that department, although once people knew that the said mixing service openly gave all the necessary info as to what happened to the coins and where it landed, I doubt people will still trust the said service. This is what my fears are for mixers, and was just a matter of time before news like this one surface. FATF, FBI and other agencies would come at Chipmixer's front door knocking and asking whether they want to cooperate or not, and I hope they know how to handle such issue.

[pinkpanther03]

At least 4,836 Bitcoin (BTC) of stolen from Binance exchange in May 2019 was laundered through crypto mixing service Chipmixer.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/binance-hackers-bombard-chipmixer-to-launder-at-least-4-836-btc

This is not good anyway for the Chipmixer, this might be the big reason for them to be close or shutdown in the end.
Also their bounty participants are in danger too because of this things. 4836 bitcoinBTC was not a joke actually, it is indeed a huge
amount that has been stolen.

[DdmrDdmr]

If we follow Clain’s report on their website (https://blog.clain.io/binance-hack-2019-deep-dive-into-the-money-laundering/) it does talk quite a lot in terms of likelihood. If fact, of the 4836 BTCs it has allegedly identified as being sent to Chipmixer, it only (currently) used a stronger more assertive vocabulary for 183 BTCs, stating that those are “surely” ("certainly", I figure they mean) identified as hacker funds, in contrast with  814 BTCs termed as “likely”.

Semantics is important, and although they may well have a good trail on something, when performing an accusation of this nature it is important to be certain and not likely certain.

Interestingly enough, back in March 2019, Clain studied the hack on a Japanese exchange called Zaif (see https://blog.clain.io/applying-machine-learning-for-thorough-investigation-of-zaif-hack/). Their investigation leads them to believe that, out of the 5957 BTCs stolen, 875 went through Chipmixer’s tumbler, and at least 1549 (mixed or not) ended up in Binance deposit addresses, with amounts below the KYC threshold of 2 BTCs used by Binance for withdrawals...

[13abyknight]

Should they stop mixing stolen coins? Should they let the police know? Should they contact Binance and lock the funds?

How would they even know before the transactions began coming in that the big sum of coins was off the Binance hack? Even if they knew, once it went into the mixer, there would be nothing stopping the hackers from getting 'clean' coins in a matter of minutes. Also, for obvious reasons, the hackers would've used the TOR mirror making things even harder to crack.

Should they contact Binance and lock the funds?

This is practically impossible for ChipMixer as it would question their ethics of remaining as a legitimate mixing service. Then again, 'locking the funds' wouldn't be possible as the output private keys with the clean coins would've already have been claimed at any time.

[kryptqnick]

This is a very stupid move and it might lead to the hacker being caught a lot quicker. A mixer service takes your coins and mix them with other people's coins, but the larger the amount of coins being mixed, the higher the chances that those coins might be mixed by the coins being send. It is rumoured that mixing services are less anonymous with larger amount of coins being mixed. 

So let's hope this backfires on them and that they dug their own grave by doing this.    The companies tracking these coins, might just have received a jackpot from these hackers bombarding a single mixer service with a lot of coins. 

Yeah, that would be nice! But I am not sure there's such a small variety on Chipmixers that your own coins will be mixed with each other, thus leaving traces. I guess a big amount of money is riskier than a small one, but still... It's sad if the hackers won't be found, it can be a black spot of Chipmixer's nice reputation. Unless Chipmixer helps the authorities since in this case, it's clear that the money is used for illegal activities... But in that case, the company might lose some of its customers and customers' trust in general. So it's a difficult situation, and it would be best for everyone apart from the hackers if you're right about the vulnerability.

[finaleshot2016]

This is bad for Chipmixer.  If the authority decided to investigate on this and targeted Chipmixer to shutdown regardless of the investigation, they can easily do it since they have a proof in their hand that a mixing service had been used to launder a hacked BTC.  I wonder why Chipmixer did not suspend those transactions.., Did they failed to track that those BTC were hacked?

Agree! It would be a bad reputation for chipmixer. This news might be a problem dealing with chipmixers access from hackers. If ever they will not be absolved, probably they will shutdown. However, I think there could be a deeper and several procedures before chipmixer ruined specially if they don't have an intention to have a user who hacked thousands of bitcoin in BNB.

Chipmixer was a great platform though, I know they will make a move to clean this issue. They should have an official statement and do an action to resolve it as soon as possible. If there's proof that the hackers aren't from chipmixer, then it will be fixed in a little amount of time.

[squatter]

If we follow Clain’s report on their website (https://blog.clain.io/binance-hack-2019-deep-dive-into-the-money-laundering/) it does talk quite a lot in terms of likelihood. If fact, of the 4836 BTCs it has allegedly identified as being sent to Chipmixer, it only (currently) used a stronger more assertive vocabulary for 183 BTCs, stating that those are “surely” ("certainly", I figure they mean) identified as hacker funds, in contrast with  814 BTCs termed as “likely”.

Semantics is important, and although they may well have a good trail on something, when performing an accusation of this nature it is important to be certain and not likely certain.

Excellent point. Everyone is reacting to the clickbait headline number, but the reality is much less clear.

Another important thing to note is that exchanges (like Binance) and DEXs are routinely used to launder the proceeds of hacks. So let's not crucify any one service for something we all know is happening across the entire ecosystem.

Should they contact Binance and lock the funds?

This is practically impossible for ChipMixer as it would question their ethics of remaining as a legitimate mixing service.

If Chipmixer operates the way they claim, they don't have more data about the hacker than can already be extracted from blockchain analysis.

[Febo]

This is bad for Chipmixer.  If the authority decided to investigate on this and targeted Chipmixer to shutdown regardless of the investigation, they can easily do it since they have a proof in their hand that a mixing service had been used to launder a hacked BTC.  I wonder why Chipmixer did not suspend those transactions.., Did they failed to track that those BTC were hacked?

It will not be first one taken down and organizers get big penalties.  This can happen to anything that have central point of failure. Even cryptocurencies that uses coinjoin to make their transactions opaque.

[LeGaulois]

Most of you are saying it's bad for ChipMixer but I would say the opposite. It's a good opportunity to prove how robust is the mixing process. In the end, it will make ChipMixer's reputation stronger and attract more people who are used to use BTC tumblers.
Such articles are helpful

It will not be first one taken down and organizers get big penalties.  This can happen to anything that have central point of failure. Even cryptocurencies that uses coinjoin to make their transactions opaque.

Big penalties? Have you ever see a mixer webmaster going in a justice court? What the hell are you talking about with Coinjoin

[hv_]

Muh, mixers are just stupid. Its only good for criminal use. No decent user needs that at all. U might need to trace back all ur coin txs in case...

[bL4nkcode]

Indeed, for sure Chipmixer will cooperate to the authority to trace the hacker.  I believe Chipmixer will protect their name and will have a wise decision regarding this incident.  Mixing service have records of their transaction though they keep it private.

Chipmixer is in a bad spot right now, if they give the data to authorities, they will lose some customers, both criminals and just people who don't trust governments. If they don't cooperate, they will risk getting closed, and they will have reputation of a service that launders dirty money, and some users might be scared that the coins that they get will be tainted.

Of course, chipmixer will follow on what they believe is right regarding to this. Even binance or any government approach to them, they will not give any data related if they care on what they're believing and the purpose of chipmixer, or else their users will start to shrink just like bestmixer.