More than 50% of bitcoins from Twitter hack have been sent through mixers

[bitcoinst]

The bitcoin mixers — ChipMixer and Wasabi Wallet — have received 56.5% of the 30.4 stolen bitcoins, i.e. 17.18 bitcoins (currently worth about $192,000), according to Elliptic.
The Twitter hack took place on July 15, and at the time, the bitcoins were worth about $121,000. The price of bitcoin has risen in recent days.

Elliptic said it tracked the bitcoin through its transaction screening tool and found that the hackers have sought to launder the funds gradually.
Bitcoin mixers mask the blockchain transaction trail, making it challenging to follow funds and to know where the funds are spent or cashed out.





https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/73567/elliptic-twitter-hack-bitcoin-mixer

https://www.elliptic.co/our-thinking/what-does-the-twitterhack-mean-for-crypto-aml

[mk4]

If anything, I'm actually quite surprised that some of those hackers/scammers risked moving out the funds(14.4%) without actually mixing/coinjoining them lol. It just shows that some of those scammers probably don't have the slightest idea on what they're doing and some just got lucky tricking security-illiterate Twitter people by using the typical giveaway scam.

[Bttzed03]

Not surprising.

The use of coinjoin/mixing services is the new getaway for hackers since centralized exchanges are more regulated now and often asks KYC. They've been using it more and more since 2019 as shown in the study made by Chainalysis

I wouldn't be surprised also if we see another round of posts/articles accusing mixers/coinjoin services of aiding money laundering.

I believe Chipmixer, being centralized, is also capable of blocking those btc's if they wanted to but that would put a huge dent on their reputation.

[hd49728]

They do bad things and they certainly have enough knowledge to mix their stolen coins from victims. I quite surprise that it is a bit more than 50% of hackers use mixers. mk4 is right that tech gurus can solve their issues with Coin Join. People who care about privacy have their reasons to use mixers or Coin Join but governments have reasons to try attack mixers (and we don't know they really want to protect victims, attack hackers or they do this for their interests only, maybe mixed purposes).

[dothebeats]

It's a no-brainer for those who know what they're doing to do some mixing before transferring it over to an exchange, but my golly I can't believe that some of them actually had the guts to do a YOLO and send directly to an exchange without mixing first. Though of course, there's a possibility of stolen identity but still, the exchanges should have been alerted of those coins coming in on their platform to at least freeze the coins and check who is behind the possible transaction and be the hero of the day.

I wouldn't be surprised also if we see another round of posts/articles accusing mixers/coinjoin services of aiding money laundering.

This is not new considering that all they do is just mix coins and make it untraceable, regardless of whether the coins they receive are tainted or not. This is the main reason why governments are having their eyes peeled on mixers and regulators keen on passing some regulations against this kind of service as they see it as a form of money laundering tool that is easily accessible.

I believe Chipmixer, being centralized, is also capable of blocking those btc's if they wanted to but that would put a huge dent on their reputation.

Pretty sure ChipMixer will hold their ground. They're in hot water for similar things for years now but they remain operational and still going strong amid all these scare and whatnot.

[davis196]

Pretty interesting data and infographic.
What does "Cashed out" mean?Does it mean that they have sold the BTC for fiat money and have withdrawn the cash or it means something else?
I assume that the category of 11% "Other" means depositing the coins into some cryptocurrency marketplaces.Why the Elliptic team doesn't want to share the names of those crypto exchange platforms?
I'm sure that they can reveal them,since they managed to discover the mixing services.

[jossiel]

They are hackers and thieves, for sure they are aware of the usage of mixers and even thought of it as part of their plan.

What does "Cashed out" mean?Does it mean that they have sold the BTC for fiat money and have withdrawn the cash or it means something else?

Probably it's the first choice.

It's likely that they were able to exchange it for fiat already and that makes them harder to track since they've used a mixer for those funds.

[TrevorS]

They are hackers and thieves, for sure they are aware of the usage of mixers and even thought of it as part of their plan.

What does "Cashed out" mean?Does it mean that they have sold the BTC for fiat money and have withdrawn the cash or it means something else?

Probably it's the first choice.

It's likely that they were able to exchange it for fiat already and that makes them harder to track since they've used a mixer for those funds.

The question is why use any method other than mixers at all, I mean exchanges. Just check? But this can lead to the fact that they leave traces.
Or it really is part of their plan. Given the scale of the hack, these hackers don't strike me as dumb. Although there are indeed contradictions in their actions.

[thesmallgod]

I posted a topic detailing how mixing services must be doing more harm than good to crypto by exchange dirty funds for a clean one. A lot of people query my post citing that the fact that bad people use it doesn't make it a bad services but the truth is that most people that patronize the services use them to clean stolen crypto. It is a matter of time before many of this service providers being charged for abating crime and money laundering

[Coin-Keeper]

I posted a topic detailing how mixing services must be doing more harm than good to crypto by exchange dirty funds for a clean one. A lot of people query my post citing that the fact that bad people use it doesn't make it a bad services but the truth is that most people that patronize the services use them to clean stolen crypto. It is a matter of time before many of this service providers being charged for abating crime and money laundering

I don't control any stolen coins and I don't have private keys to any coins that haven't been "multiple times" mixed for storage.  Lots of people just want to be safe and own coins that are NOT traceable to them and they never tell their friends they even know what a BTC is.  I have always found a way to avoid KYC and AML stuff, and I have both bought and sold for fiat.

[joinfree]

finally, these guys are going to be fished out! these bitcoin mixers are good at keeping transactions very secured and anonymous but i bet there are other solutions that can go beyond the ordinary and locate these wallets and where the bitcoins are sent to. Will be happy to hear what really comes out of this follow up!

[CaVO32]

If anything, I'm actually quite surprised that some of those hackers/scammers risked moving out the funds(14.4%) without actually mixing/coinjoining them lol. It just shows that some of those scammers probably don't have the slightest idea on what they're doing and some just got lucky tricking security-illiterate Twitter people by using the typical giveaway scam.

Have you read the thread that the twitter hacker and his accessories were already arrested? Relatively young fellows so they may not fully know how to hide their stolen funds. They don't put all those stolen funds to mixer services. Some they cashed out without using this service, so maybe this was the reason why their movements were traced. Not too smart on their side. But the question here is - are they going to return those stolen funds to the users that were screwed by their fraudulent activity?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5265910

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/technology/twitter-hack-arrest.html

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/31/tech/alleged-twitter-hacker-arrested/index.html

[Lanatsa]

Its no surprise because if you do consider yourself a hacker then you arent just dumb to cashout those coins without using any mixers or not trying to erase your trails.

Seen that some of the coins are still unspent but it would just be heading on the same way if they do want to cash it out then theres no way that someone can track them up.

with just using up some mixers will already do the job done.No hacker would be careless and letting themselves to put in the danger of jail rails.

[Wexnident]

Just wondering what the "other" part meant? Does that mean it was spent on something? Cause unspent and cashed out parts are marked already. Also, it's not really surprising. I'm more surprised they had a part of their funds cashed out without passing through mixers. Hell, I would've mixed them all after obtaining them quickly.

~

Okay, that is news to me. The fact that they were that young and was able to provide such a scheme like this is quite amazing enough, but the fact that they were also too young to cover their tracks lead them to their death sentences. I'd like to know more details about how they were found out though, aside from the words "leaving hints" which can be pretty vague.

[Kabul]

So there is actually about 14.4% of the fund (2.8% cashed out and 11.8% on other) is spent without going into Bitcoin mixer? I am wondering how did that happen, are the scammers not aware of the risk of being caught when using Bitcoin or something?

[Blank-Head]

Is there any way to lock their funds from chipmixer or from any exchange?
They should not get our golden BTC by hacking from others.
Because they stole from Bitcoin lovers.

[hd49728]

Is there any way to lock their funds from chipmixer or from any exchange?
They should not get our golden BTC by hacking from others.
Because they stole from Bitcoin lovers.

No, they can't because bitcoin is decentralized, not like USDT or some centralized cryptocurrency. [UPDATED] PSA: Most Stablecoins Can Be Frozen, Even in Your Own Wallets. No one on the network or from any government can freeze or lock your bitcoin. In the other words, you have keys, you have your coins. Remember the story is different if you store your bitcoin on exchanges, not on your wallets.

[arayde]

To ask for btc was very strange decision, they almost blocked now. Why not to use something private?

[bitbunnny]

If anything, I'm actually quite surprised that some of those hackers/scammers risked moving out the funds(14.4%) without actually mixing/coinjoining them lol. It just shows that some of those scammers probably don't have the slightest idea on what they're doing and some just got lucky tricking security-illiterate Twitter people by using the typical giveaway scam.

They were probably very self confident thinking no one will disover what thry are doing and no one will track theur lead. Unfortunately this just shows that in many cases hackers and scamers still have pretry easy job. The big mistakes were made by Twitter two and they will need to explain a lot of issues in their security
Bitcoins that were going through mixers will probably never be traced

[Cryptoreflector_666]

The bitcoin mixers — ChipMixer and Wasabi Wallet — have received 56.5% of the 30.4 stolen bitcoins, i.e. 17.18 bitcoins (currently worth about $192,000), according to Elliptic.
The Twitter hack took place on July 15, and at the time, the bitcoins were worth about $121,000. The price of bitcoin has risen in recent days.

Elliptic said it tracked the bitcoin through its transaction screening tool and found that the hackers have sought to launder the funds gradually.
Bitcoin mixers mask the blockchain transaction trail, making it challenging to follow funds and to know where the funds are spent or cashed out.





https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/73567/elliptic-twitter-hack-bitcoin-mixer

https://www.elliptic.co/our-thinking/what-does-the-twitterhack-mean-for-crypto-aml

Unfortunately, this is a big disadvantage of bitcoin transactions, that hackers can manipulate funds depending on the degree of their immersion in the sphere. Of course, mixers contribute to how you can cover up the traces of your transactions, but this is not the main problem in this area. More bitcoins are lost when people simply forget their passwords and keys to their wallets.