Social Engineering Attack Drains $282M From Crypto User — Security Wake-Up Call
A single crypto user just got schooled in the oldest trick in the book—for a record-breaking price.
The Human Firewall Failed
Forget complex code exploits. This heist was executed with psychology, not programming. The attacker bypassed digital defenses by targeting the person behind the wallet, proving once again that the most sophisticated smart contract is only as strong as its weakest human link. The $282 million loss didn't require a quantum computer—just a convincing story and a moment of misplaced trust.
A New Benchmark for Bad Days
The sheer scale resets the bar for personal financial disasters in digital assets. It’s a stark, nine-figure reminder that in the rush toward decentralization, personal operational security often gets left in the dust. The industry builds fortresses around value but sometimes uses a screen door for access.
The Aftermath and the Irony
In a twist that would make a cynic smirk, this loss highlights a perverse milestone: crypto has grown so valuable that old-fashioned cons are now more profitable than hacking most national banks. It’s the ultimate sign of mainstream adoption—scammers have fully upgraded their ambitions to match the asset class.
The ledger is immutable, the money is gone, and the lesson is painfully clear. Your seed phrase is sacred, but your own judgment is the final, and most hackable, layer of security.
How Crypto User Fell Victim To $282M Theft
According to prominent blockchain sleuth ZachXBT, the crypto theft occurred on January 10, 2026 at around 11:00 pm UTC. Around 2.05 million Litecoin (worth roughly $153 million) and 1,459 Bitcoin (equivalent to around $139 million) was drained from the victim’s hardware wallet after they were tricked into sharing their seed phrase.
The exploiter swiftly transferred the funds across multiple networks to obscure the trail after gaining full control of the crypto wallet. As revealed by ZachXBT, the attacker first began converting the stolen crypto assets into Monero’s native token, XMR, through multiple instant exchanges, leading to a surge in the price of XMR.
Furthermore, the exploiter bridged significant amounts of the stolen Bitcoin across Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin through THORChain, a decentralized cross-chain platform that enables users to swap crypto assets between different blockchain networks. Unsurprisingly, this move reignited the debate around the use — or abuse — of censorship-resistant cross-chain protocols, especially during security breaches.
After the news of the attack made it to social media, conversations around the entity or persons behind $282 million theft started, with many linking it to a state-sponsored hacking group. However, ZachXBT categorically stated that “it’s not North Korea,” potentially exonerating the infamous state-backed Lazarus Group.
In a post on LinkedIn, security firm ZeroShadow described the victim as a Bitcoin wallet “belonging to an individual who had been tricked into sharing their seed phrase by an actor impersonating Trezor ‘Value Wallet’ support.” The firm claimed that it was able to track and flag parts of the stolen funds in real time after being alerted by blockchain monitoring teams.
According to ZeroShadow, roughly $700,000 worth of crypto assets were reportedly frozen before they could be fully swapped into privacy-focused assets. This latest incident sheds light on how the digital asset industry is still being targeted by malicious actors.
XMR Price Rallies To New High Following Security Incident
As described by ZachXBT, the attacker, after gaining control of the victim’s wallet, began converting the stolen crypto assets into Monero’s native token, XMR, through several exchanges. In the background, this activity pushed the price of the privacy-focused XMR to a new all-time high around $800 over the past week.
According to data from CoinGecko, the XMR token rallied almost 80% to $797.73 from a weekly low around $450 following the crypto theft. As of this writing, XMR is valued at around $588, reflecting a nearly 25% drop in the past few days.
