Криптоинцидент: Основатель THORChain попался на фишинг с потерей $1,3 млн Translation: Crypto Incident: THORChain Founder Falls for Phishing Scam, Losing $1.3 Million

Hackers gained access to the wallet of THORChain founder Jon-Paul Torbjørnsen and made off with cryptocurrency assets valued at approximately $1.3 million.

Initially, analysts speculated that the protocol itself had been compromised, but representatives from the network denied these claims.

«The incident is related to an attack on a user’s personal wallet and is not connected to THORChain,» the team clarified.

Subsequently, blockchain investigator ZachXBT stated that the affected address is linked to Torbjørnsen and that the attack occurred during a fraudulent online meeting. The researcher also attributed the breach to North Korean hackers.

«[Torbjørnsen] is one of those who reaped significant financial gains from laundering money through hacks/exploits by North Korea. So it’s quite poetic that North Korea caught up with him,» the analyst added.

The THORChain founder also confirmed the rapidly spreading rumors regarding the breach of his personal wallet. According to reports, on September 4, he received a phishing link for a Zoom meeting via Telegram from a compromised account belonging to a friend.

After Torbjørnsen clicked the link, the criminals utilized a deepfake of his associate. In just two minutes of conversation, they somehow managed to upload a malicious script to his computer and steal all his data.

On September 12, THORChain began sending on-chain messages to the perpetrators’ address requesting the return of funds for a reward.

It’s worth noting that in August, losses from hacks within the cryptocurrency industry totaled $163 million. Analysts from PeckShield recorded around 16 major attacks.