Crypto Hacker Loses $5.5 Million to Price Crash

Blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain has spotted a streak of transactions from wallets linked to tagged hackers. Apparently, these hackers’ wallets offloaded 8,638 Ethereum (ETH) at $3,764 per unit and later purchased 7,816 ETH at $4,159. This means that it incurred losses of up to $5.5 million as a result of this action.

Crypto Prices Dropped With the US-China Trade Wars

On October 10, U.S. President Donald Trump restarted conversations about the region’s trade war with China. 

This event led to a market-wide crash, negatively impacting cryptocurrencies as well. Bitcoin price dropped below $110,000, Ethereum to around $3,500, as did many other digital assets. It was described as the largest market liquidation ever seen, with more than $19 billion wiped out.

Lookonchain noted that some tagged hacker wallets also chose that season as a good time to dump their Ethereum holdings. They sold 8,638 ETH at $3,764 per coin, summing up to about $32.5 million. As the market recovered in the days that followed, the hackers bought 7,816 ETH valued at approximately $32.5 million at $4,159.

FOMO Leads to Crypto Losses

Based on the difference in prices, these wallets ended up with an estimated $5.5 million loss. To substantiate this information, Lookonchain shared three Arkham address pages via an X post. It was through the labels provided by Arkham Intelligence that the analyst was able to identify them. Their action is likely a case of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

In a somewhat similar scenario, the attacker behind the recent UXLINK exploit fell prey to another cybercriminal. He lost more than 542 million UXLINK tokens, worth roughly $50 million, to the exploit. This was after the attacker stole $4 million in USDT, $500,000 in USDC, 3.7 wBTC, and 25 ETH.

Crypto Prices Recover Post Market Crash

So far, the crypto market has recovered, with some digital assets like Binance Coin (BNB) going all the way to a full rebound. 

According to CoinMarketCap, BNB price is currently at $1,284.82 while its trading volume has spiked by 33.41% to rest at $12.6 billion. Even top cryptocurrency Bitcoin has also recovered and is now trading at $114,404.37 with a 0.1%.

Ethereum is also trading at $4,213.96 with a 2.37% increase within 24 hours.