ZachXBT Says a Suspected Cover-Up Hides a $133 Million Crypto Theft From a Western European Institution

On-chain investigator ZachXBT raised his estimate of a suspected crypto theft from an unidentified European Union entity to more than $133 million on Tuesday, up from about $106 million reported Monday. He said another $27 million in withdrawals at centralized exchanges had been identified, some of them after his first disclosure. The estimates are his own, and no victim, exchange, Circle or law enforcement body has been quoted confirming the theft.

ZachXBT’s working theory, unverified, is that “a large financial institution in Western Europe was exploited and it’s currently being covered up.” He also claims that more than $30 million was laundered because no proper disclosure was made, when EU law enforcement could otherwise have frozen the funds. He said the attacker swapped into ETH and Monero through instant exchanges and cross-chain bridges, and that the pattern did not resemble North Korea’s Lazarus Group.

Separate tracking by Bitquery, as reported by Cointelegraph, found $62.98 million in stablecoins converted into 27,553 ETH within about four hours. As of 13:47 UTC Monday, roughly $78.3 million remained in wallets linked to the suspected attacker and $30.5 million had left tracked addresses. Only $3.74 million in USDC was potentially freezable by Circle.

Until the affected party speaks, the incident’s size, victim and cause remain claims by investigators rather than established facts.

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Sources:

• Cointelegraph: ZachXBT Raises Suspected EU Crypto Theft to $133M