Tornado Cash hacker transfers part of the stolen ETH and TORN
The hacker still has more than 20 ETH (~$35 691) in his wallet
25.05.2023 - 12:45
549
2 min
0
The attacker behind a takeover of Tornado Cash DAO has apparently started to move their illicitly gained tokens, blockchain data shows.
Addresses tied to the attacker moved 100 ether (ETH) and 38,000 torn (TORN) tokens in two transactions using the Tornado Cash protocol on Wednesday night, Etherscan data shows.
The DAO handling the privacy-focused crypto mixer's operations, funds and future plans was taken over by an unidentified attacker, or attackers, on Saturday.
The attacker holds over 20 ether ($35,684) in their wallet, and continues to have access to potentially all of Tornado Cash’s treasury funds.
The attacker floated a malicious proposal that hid a code function that granted them fake votes that can now be used to handle some aspects of Tornado Cash, such as torn tokens held in the main governance contract or withdrawal of locked torn tokens.
DAOs, short for decentralized autonomous organizations, allow token holders to lock up their holdings as votes for proposing changes to a project. These changes can range from deploying treasury funds to purposes that benefit the project to expansion on other networks.
The attack does not impact the actual Tornado Cash protocol – which allows users to pass funds through the service to mask or obscure the movements of funds and crypto addresses. This attack was not an exploit of any smart contracts or technology related to the working of Tornado Cash.
As such, there’s still hope for Tornado Cash.
The attacker floated a proposal to revert all malicious changes before the takeover earlier this week – sending torn prices up 10% at the time.
This material is taken from the website https://www.coindesk.com.
Useful material?
Incidents
Developers warned of potential risks to bridges across the ecosystem and asked exchanges for assistance.
Jun 22, 2026
Incidents
The defendant helped move funds stolen through investment scams and earned at least $4 million for his role in the operation.
Jun 10, 2026
Incidents
The company is linking the incident to a compromised private key on a service wallet, rather than a smart contract exploit
May 22, 2026
Incidents
Following the incident, the project temporarily halted trading operations and node activity.
May 15, 2026
Incidents
The user spent weeks unsuccessfully trying to guess the password until Claude helped find an old wallet backup file
May 14, 2026
Crypto regulations
Authorities are introducing mandatory registration for companies handling cross-border crypto transactions
May 8, 2026
Telegram
Twitter