MonoX Finance Hacker Moves $31M in Tornado Cash

The perpetrator of the breach of the DeFi protocol MonoX has transferred $2.1 million of the $31 million stolen to the newly sanctioned anonymity network Tornado Cash.

According to data from the blockchain explorer Etherscan, the hacker used Tornado Cash to shift around 1,300 ETH worth approximately $2.1 million. The monies were moved in a block of 100 ETH by the malicious actor.

Recall that the United States Treasury Department had previously prohibited the usage of the crypto mixer in the nation due to its association with various DeFi exploits. The penalties required crypto exchanges operating inside the nation to ban transactions with Tornado Cash.

While the hacker’s location is unclear, it is probable that the money will be stopped if they are delivered to any U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange.

In November 2021, around $31 million was stolen from MonoX owing to an exploit of a smart contract flaw in the Ethereum and Polygon deployments of the system. In addition to manipulating the price of $MONO, MonoX’s native token, the hacker stole the aforementioned amount.

According to the analytics website DeFiLlama, prior to the attack, MonoX had $37.3 million in its Total Value Locked (TVL). To date, the protocol does not seem to have recovered from the loss, as its TVL is presently about $11,600, signifying a reduction of more than 99% amid a general market fall.

Since the assault, the native token for MonoX, $MONO, has also seen a significant price fall. After reaching an all-time high of $7.48 in November 2021, the token’s price has plummeted to its current level of $0.11.

Several decentralized protocols have been exploited by malicious parties. The hackers have used several tactics to aid their assaults, including front-end attacks and network bridge attacks.

Last week, a front-end assault on the decentralized exchange (DEX) Kyberswap resulted in the loss of $265,000 worth of money. An attack on the cross-chain protocol Nomad bridge led to the loss of around $200 million to malicious actors at the beginning of last month.

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