Crypto OG Loses $24M In Suspected Address Poisoning Attack – PeckShield

A major security breach has shocked the crypto community after a wallet linked to an early crypto participant and NFT collector, sillytuna, lost roughly $24 million worth of aETHUSDC in what analysts believe to be an address poisoning attack.

But, sillytuna says that the theft process actually involved violence, weapons, kidnapping, and rape threats.

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How Sillytuna Loses $24M In Address Poisoning Attack

Blockchain security firm PeckShield first flagged suspicious activity after noticing a large token transfer from a wallet beginning with 0xd2e8…ca41, reportedly associated with a long-time crypto figure. 

On-chain records show the wallet sent 23,596,293 aEthUSDC (worth roughly $23.5 million) in a single transfer to another wallet (0x6fef…a246032). PeckShield believes the attacker used an address-poisoning technique 

Further, the attacker quickly converted $20 million of the stolen assets into DAI and distributed the funds across two intermediary wallets.

• One wallet with an address (0xd0c…9dd3E) holding around $10 million in DAI.
• Second wallet with address (0xcdCA…eC9C4) holding 9.979 million in DAI.

Attacker Started Bridging Fund Towards Arbitrum

Blockchain monitoring also shows the attacker has started bridging small portions of the funds to the Arbitrum network.

One tracked transfer indicates a bridge transaction sending roughly 49.85 ETH, which resulted in over 106,000 USDC appearing on Arbitrum through a cross-chain bridge.

Security researchers believe the attacker may continue moving funds in smaller portions to avoid triggering alerts.

Victim Claims Physical Threats Were Involved

Shortly after the attack became public, sillytuna confirmed the compromised wallet was his personal address, revealing that the situation involved serious real-world threats.

According to his statement, the incident included violence, weapons, and kidnapping threats, adding that law enforcement authorities are now handling the investigation.

Shaken by the incident, the veteran crypto participant said he plans to leave the crypto industry completely. 

Despite the loss, sillytuna said he was thankful the situation did not turn worse and that he managed to escape without serious physical harm.

Bounty Offered to Recover Stolen Funds

Following the incident, the NFT collector publicly offered a 10% bounty for anyone able to help recover the stolen funds. The offer applies to individuals, investigators, or even parties involved in the incident who may return the assets.