The hacker of TempleDAO, a protocol that claims it provides sustainable income via staking, has moved stolen funds via crypto mixer Tornado Cash, according to data from Etherscan.
Earlier this month, one of the Staking vaults of TempleDAO was exploited, resulting in 1,830 ETH, or about $2.3 million, being stolen by a hacker.
First cited by blockchain data firm Peckshield, a roughly equivalent amount of ETH has been transferred from an address identified as that of the TempleDAO hacker to a Tornado Cash router. This began with a deposit of 0.1 ETH that occurred within hours today.
Tornado Cash is a crypto-mixing service that allows users to obscure the details of transactions. In August, the mixer and the 44 Ethereum and USDC wallets associated with it were sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury, citing its association with high-profile hacks such as the Ronin and Harmony breaches. In particular, it identified these hacks as benefiting North Korea’s Lazarus Group and accused the mixer of laundering more than $455 million for it.
This latest development in the TempleDAO hack follows a big month of hacks in the cryptocurrency sector. An Oct. 12 report by The Block cited Chainalysis data that showed October is already in the lead for the most crypto funds stolen in a month.
The data cited 11 hacks totaling $718 million occurring this month so far, topping a year that is expected to eclipse the $3 billion stolen in 2021. These include the recent $100 million hack of Binance’s BNB cross-chain bridge and Monday’s $114 million exploit of Mango Markets.
