- One individual spent a huge amount of ETH on Magic the Gathering cards.
- This raised suspicions in the cryptocurrency industry about the source of the funds.
Frauds and attacks have been rampant in the cryptocurrency sector over the past few years. Hackers are constantly looking for ways to escape stolen funds without being detected.
Where is the magic?
During the year, individuals withdrew 11,200+ ETH from Tornado Cash. This person spent that amount on Magic: The Gathering (MTG) trading cards.
For context, Magic: The Gathering is a popular collectible card game.
Someone took out 100 Ethereum (ETH) in 110 batches and split them into 11 addresses. I then wrapped the ETH, moved the wrapped ETH to a new address, then unwrapped it and sent the USDC to the MTG broker.
They did this to spoof the checks performed by the exchange (KYT) and make it less clear where the money was going. The process involves a series of steps that confuse tracking and hide the flow of funds.
To identify your broker, you will need to check their Instagram username and contact the on-chain MTG seller.
In particular, buyers have exhibited unusual behavior, including overpaying for MTG items, demonstrating limited cryptocurrency knowledge, and transacting via cryptocurrency directly with sellers. Funds also went to Kraken, Bitpay, and Coinbase.
1/ Throughout this year, I have been monitoring someone who withdrew over 11,200 ETH ($25 million) from Tornado Cash and spent most of it on Magic The Gathering (MTG) trading cards.
Here’s a breakdown of where the money went and what its potential sources are:
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) December 7, 2023
possible theory
The theory is that these funds originated from the $50 million Uranium Finance hack that occurred in April 2021.
Anubis and Cashio were ruled out as potential sources, leaving Uranium as a viable candidate based on timeline correlations with tornado deposits and hacker activity.
The questionable nature of individuals’ spending, overpayments, and obfuscation methods raises questions about the source and purpose of the funds.
Suspicious behavior could raise suspicions about the cryptocurrency space, which is set to gain more mainstream popularity thanks to ETFs.
This kind of behavior not only affects sentiment in the sector, but can also influence regulatory scrutiny of the sector.
Realistic or not, the market cap of ETH relative to BTC is:
ETH Sees Green
Despite ETH being the primary transfer method for potential attackers, the price of ETH was not affected. At press time, ETH was trading at $2,373.91, up 5.05% over the past 24 hours.
Source: Santiment