Hackers Buy the ETH Dip With Stolen Crypto as the Price of the Cryptocurrency Drops Over 20%

As the price of ETH dropped over 20% on Aug. 30, hackers were seen leveraging the opportunity to buy the dip using stolen crypto.

Hackers Hit Crypto Buying Spree as ETH Drops 20%

As the price of ETH dropped over 20% on Aug. 30, hackers were seen taking advantage of the opportunity to buy the dip using stolen crypto.

Blockchain security firm PeckShield detected that the perpetrators, behind the 2021 hack on Binance Smart Chain (BSC)-based decentralized finance (defi) protocol Pancake Bunny, bought 2,922 ETH for 7.8 million DAI, according to a recent tweet.

PeckShield's community contributor noticed the PancakeBunny exploiter buying ETH. The exploiter swapped 7.8M DAI for 2,922 ETH.

On May 19, 2021, PancakeBunny's Bunny Protocol was hit by a flash loan attack, where attackers stole $46M+ in its tokens, swapping them for tokens like BNB, USDT, DAI. The attack caused the price of the project's native token, $BUNNY, to crash.

Last month, the exploiter’s address showed signs of activity, transferring 1,002 Ether to crypto mixer Tornado Cash. The service helps bad actors avoid authorities tracing the flow of funds.

At the time, the attacker’s wallet had about $11.4 million in Dai (DAI) remaining.

Meanwhile, analytics firm Lookonchain also highlighted that attackers, behind the $200 million hack of cross-chain token bridge Nomad, also acquired ETH.

The Nomad bridge allowed users to send funds across several blockchains, and the attack occurred due to a vulnerability in the smart contract where tokens sent via the bridge are initially deposited.

On August 30, 2024, the attacker spent 39.75 million DAI to acquire 16,892 ETH, which were then moved in batches of 100 ETH to Tornado Cash in a series of transactions. In total, the attacker moved about 2,400 ETH to the privacy mixer.

Over the years, the attacker has moved the stolen assets on several occasions, with over $1.5 million being laundered through Tornado Cash in January soso23soso23, and prior to that, about $7.5 million was moved to an unknown address.

At the time of writing, one of the Nomad bridge attacker’s wallets had just over 14,500 ETH, valued at over $33 million.

These recent moves follow a sharp drop in ETH's price, presenting a potential buying opportunity. However, analysts noted that the cryptocurrency lost crucial support levels, indicating that the price could dip further.

The price drop also coincided with the broader crypto market recording over $1 billion in liquidations within 24 hours.