Well-liked on-chain investigator ZachXBT revealed on Friday {that a} sufferer misplaced over $282 million price of BTC and LTC attributable to a {hardware} pockets social engineering rip-off.
The stolen funds have been transformed to Monero (XMR), which was among the many causes behind the asset’s large value enhance that started final week. The on-chain sleuth added {that a} large portion of the swiped BTC was bridged to Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin through THORChain.
On January 10, 2026 at round 11 pm UTC a sufferer misplaced $282M+ price of LTC & BTC attributable to a {hardware} pockets social engineering rip-off.
The attacker started changing the stolen LTC & BTC to Monero through a number of immediate exchanges inflicting the XMR value to sharply enhance.
BTC was additionally…
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) January 16, 2026
The crypto neighborhood was fast to select up THORChain’s posts on X. Some members blamed the platform’s social media staff for bragging about enabling and even “celebrating” crime.
Others outlined the risks of social engineering scams, which put even funds on {hardware} wallets in danger. Such scams are usually carried out through faux accounts impersonating a horny girl who has abruptly fallen for the sufferer, despite the fact that they’ve by no means met.
On the time of the occasion and earlier than the swaps to XMR started, the privateness coin traded at round $450. It exploded to consecutive all-time highs within the following days, with the newest occurring on January 15 when it neared $800.
Since then, XMR has retraced closely, maybe because the attackers offloaded a number of the proceeds, and now sits beneath $630.
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