How did the communication trap work in the hacker's $282 million crypto theft

A hacker who gained trust through social engineering communication channels has stolen 2.05 million litecoin (LTC) and 1.459 bitcoin (BTC), ringing a new alarm bell in the crypto world. The incident highlights not how sophisticated the hacker’s technology must be, but how weak the victim’s communication processes can be.

Social Engineering: The Hacker’s Communication Weapon

In this attack that took place at 23:00 UTC on January 10, the hacker perhaps did not exploit a software vulnerability but gained access to the victim’s private keys by winning their trust with the right words. A communication-based social engineering attack involves impersonating a company employee or system administrator and convincing the victim to send sensitive information. No firewall or encryption can fully protect against this method; the human factor is the strongest weapon of these specialized hackers.

In the crypto ecosystem, especially among hardware wallet users, such communication traps are highly vulnerable. The hacker may have contacted the victim, who perhaps did not question the legitimacy of support requests, gradually building trust before obtaining critical information.

Lost Assets: $282 Million in Losses

The 2.05 million LTC and 1.459 BTC stolen by the hacker amount to a total of $282 million in crypto assets. This is one of the record losses in a single social engineering attack, highlighting the failure of protective mechanisms.

The identity of the victim—whether an individual crypto holder or an organization—remains uncertain. However, the scale of the assets seized suggests that a corporate entity may have been targeted.

Hacker’s Trace-Erasing Strategy: Monero and Thorchain

The stolen funds were quickly exchanged for monero (XMR) through multiple exchange channels. This strategic choice was no coincidence; monero is preferred among hackers because it is a privacy coin that keeps transactions completely confidential.

XMR experienced a 70% price increase within four days after the attack; this indicates that the rapid conversion of large amounts of stolen funds into monero significantly impacted the supply-demand balance in the market.

Additionally, some of the bitcoin was transferred across multiple blockchains via the Thorchain protocol, including ethereum, ripple, and litecoin. This demonstrates the hacker’s disciplined approach to completely erasing their trail.

ZachXBT’s Analysis: No Connection to North Korea

According to an investigation by renowned blockchain security researcher ZachXBT, there is no link between this hacker attack and North Korean threat actors. This suggests that the attack was more likely carried out by highly skilled individual hackers or small criminal groups.

ZachXBT’s analysis indicates that the actors behind the attack are professional hackers pursuing pure economic gain rather than state-sponsored operations.

Increasing Communication-Based Attacks in 2026

This incident is a vivid example of a trend that began in 2025 and accelerated in 2026: social engineering has become the most effective attack vector in the crypto sector.

On January 5, the hardware wallet provider Ledger experienced a data breach due to unauthorized access to personal data such as user names and contact information. Such data leaks open the door for hackers to contact potential victims and make social engineering attacks even more powerful.

Security Warning for Crypto Users

Hardware wallet owners should understand that their protection mechanisms depend more on communication security than on technical safeguards. They should remain silent in the face of fake support requests or unverified communication attempts and never, under any circumstances, share their private keys with anyone else.

Against hackers’ sophisticated communication strategies, the strongest defense is human awareness.