Crypto Mixers Were Used by Thieves After Two Recent Major Crypto Hacks

The Bybit hack is the largest heist of all time, not only the biggest crypto exchange hack.

Around $1.5 billion in ETH was stolen from the Bybit exchange on Feb. 21, 2025. Elliptic analytics say the funds were probably stolen by the infamous Lazarus Group. The tokens were likely sent to crypto mixers for laundering. Thieves who stole crypto from Infini the following day were using a mixer service, too.

The Bybit hack is the largest heist of all time, not only the biggest crypto exchange hack, according to a report by Elliptic. Elliptic points out that usually hacks like the recent Bybit incident involve layering of the stolen funds. It may include the use of decentralized exchanges, swapping services, or crypto mixers like Tornado Cash or Cryptomixer.

In two hours after the hack, 400,000 ETH stolen from Bybit were distributed among around 50 addresses. As of February 23, 10% of these wallets were already emptied. The following actions with these assets may include more transactions like swapping, using the cross-blockchain bridges, mixers, etc. Elliptic singles out the fully anonymous exchange eXch as the main tool for the Bybit hack money laundering at the current stage.

Elliptic analysts say the final stage is obfuscating transactions via crypto mixers. It is noted in the report that this task may be demanding in this case due to the sheer volumes of stolen funds.

Following the Bybit hack, bad actors stole $50 million in USDC from the Infini platform. A crypto mixer Tornado Cash was used at some point to hide the real transaction details. The funds stolen in January’s multi-million hack of the Phemex exchange reportedly ended up in a Tornado Cash mixer as well.

Bitcoin, Ethereum, and many other blockchains keep transaction records transparent. Therefore, if criminals use these blockchains, they may need crypto mixers that obfuscate transaction data and hide from justice.

Although crypto mixers are a handy tool for those committing financial crimes, often, they are not intended to be used only by bad actors. Many people just strive to keep their transactions private. They, too, may see crypto mixers in a positive way.

However, due to the overall frustrating experience, crypto mixers are scrutinized as no matter why people create them, they are often used by criminals. Some crypto mixers don’t stop criminals and serve them for years.

One of the starkest examples is Bitcoin Fog, a mixing service that helped to obfuscate transaction data for 1.2 million bitcoins (around 5% of the total supply) between 2011 and 2021. The platform was used by criminals on many occasions. As a result, Bitcoin Fog creator Roman Sterlingov was sentenced to 12 years in prison after he was found guilty of money laundering conspiracy, money transmission without a license in the District of Columbia, and other crimes.

Three members of the Tornado Cash team were arrested on different occasions in the 2020s, as the mixer platform was allegedly involved in a high-scale money laundering operation associated with Lazarus Group. Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev was freed from prison in February this year, however, his battle continues.

The case sparked the debate over the legal treatment of privacy-focused platforms. The code itself is not a crime. Pertsev wrote an open-source service that obfuscates transaction data on the Ethereum blockchain. He is not an owner of Tornado Cash, nor the one who uses it to launder money.

The main rationale for the charges is that criminals & state hackers used the open source code he wrote. But one would also assume that these bad actors used computers with operating systems. Are the… https://t.co/000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000