Another exchange has been hacked! An entity suspected to be from the EU, with funds held on several exchanges, experienced a simultaneous breach across multiple accounts. On November 1st, over $106 million was stolen from its accounts across multiple exchanges. The stolen funds weren't from the exchanges' wallets, but from its own accounts within those exchanges. The news originated from a community alert posted on Telegram by blockchain detective ZachXBT. The victim is suspected to be an EU entity, whose name has not been disclosed. The stolen assets are stablecoins: USDC and USDT. Stablecoins have a unique characteristic: the issuer can freeze them. Logically, this kind of money shouldn't be easy to steal. But what happened in the next 24 hours was truly frightening. ZachXBT traced the following route: 1. A large amount of USDC was first exchanged for ETH. 2. The funds were transferred to instant exchange platforms like WellWallet and Kyrrex. 3. The funds were then exchanged for Monero (XMR) via Wagyu. 4. Finally, the funds were transferred across several blockchains. He disclosed a total of 11 related addresses. From stablecoins that can be frozen to privacy coins that are difficult to trace, large amounts of funds began to be exchanged within a single day. Comparing this to the events of June this year shows how crucial speed is. On June 11th, a Tron address received approximately 120 million USDT. On June 12th, Tether froze approximately 72 million USDT in a related address. ZachXBT stated that the same entity was also placing buy orders for Monero, driving the price of XMR from $330 to $420. That time, 72 million USDT didn't have time to escape. This time, a large amount of funds were exchanged within 24 hours. Another ironic detail is the timing of this exchange. In April, ZachXBT publicly criticized Circle for being too slow in freezing USDC, listing 15 cases involving over $420 million. One example he cited was Cetus: according to him, Circle took a month to blacklist the stolen addresses, by which time the USDC had already been exchanged for ETH. This time, the massive exchange was again for USDC. Two things to watch: First, whether Tether and Circle can freeze a portion of the funds this time; Second, whether XMR will experience a similar surge driven by large orders as in June. ZachXBT, Monero, XMR, Hacker, On-chain Security