What Did CertiK Find?
About $63 million in crypto linked to the Jan. 10 wallet compromise has been traced to Tornado Cash, according to blockchain security firm CertiK. The firm said its monitoring systems detected interactions with the privacy-focused mixer connected to the $282 million theft, shedding light on how the attacker is attempting to obscure the trail. The finding expands on what investigators already knew about the incident: the speed and scale of the fund movements following the theft. The Jan. 10 compromise drew immediate attention across the crypto security community due to the size of the loss and the rapid use of cross-chain tools to move assets out of reach. CertiK said the $63 million represents only part of the total amount stolen, but the path taken by those funds follows a well-worn pattern used in large-scale crypto thefts.
Investor Takeaway
How Did the Funds Move After the Theft?
CertiK’s analysis shows that a portion of the stolen bitcoin was bridged to Ethereum shortly after the compromise. At least 686 BTC was moved through a cross-chain swap, resulting in roughly 19,600 ether sent to a single Ethereum address. From there, the ether was split across multiple wallets. Each address forwarded several hundred ETH onward before the funds entered Tornado Cash. This stepwise fragmentation reduces visibility and makes it harder for investigators to follow balances once mixing begins. The sequence highlights how attackers now rely on cross-chain bridges and liquidity protocols as the first step in laundering, before turning to mixers as the final layer of obfuscation.
Why Do Mixers Change the Recovery Odds?
Marwan Hachem, CEO of blockchain security firm FearsOff, said the observed activity matches an established laundering blueprint. “This flow follows the classic large-scale laundering playbook pretty closely, especially for cross-chain thefts involving BTC and LTC,” he said. He pointed to the use of THORswap to convert bitcoin into ether, followed by the division of funds into chunks of roughly 400 ETH before entering Tornado Cash. According to Hachem, this approach limits attention on individual transactions and sharply reduces the chances of recovery. “Tornado Cash is a major kill switch for traceability,” he said, adding that recovery odds “drop to near zero” in most cases after funds enter a mixer. Once assets pass that point, options for mitigation become limited and unreliable.
Investor Takeaway
What Caused the Jan. 10 Wallet Compromise?
Investigators previously traced the theft to a social engineering attack rather than a protocol flaw. The attacker impersonated wallet support staff and tricked the victim into revealing a seed phrase, giving full control over the wallet. The compromised address held roughly 1,459 BTC and more than 2 million litecoin at the time of the attack. Portions of the stolen assets were later swapped into privacy-focused coins as part of the laundering effort. Security firm ZeroShadow said about $700,000 was flagged and frozen early in the process, but most of the funds moved quickly beyond reach. That outcome reflects how narrow the window can be between theft and effective intervention.
What Does This Case Show About Crypto Theft Today?
The Jan. 10 incident underscores how mature laundering methods have become. Large thefts now combine social engineering, cross-chain bridges, automated swaps, and mixers in rapid succession. Each step compounds the difficulty of tracing and recovery.