Monero Soars 50% Amid $330M Bitcoin Laundering Activity
The event, identified by blockchain analyst ZachXBT, started when the BTC was withdrawn from a targeted wallet to a recognised suspicious account.
A reported theft of 3,520 Bitcoin worth around $330.7 million has sparked a strong rally in Monero (XMR) after the looted funds were moved across several instant trading platforms.
The launderers quickly sent the money through more than six exchanges, changing large amounts of Bitcoin into Monero, a privacy-focused cryptocurrency known for making transactions hard to trace.
Monero Rises 50%, Reaches Multi-Year High
The instant gain in demand triggered XMR’s price to jump by 50%, hitting record levels of $329, a level not reached in years.
According to data from CoinGecko, at present, the token is trading around $267.03 with a 16.3% increase in the last 24 hours.
According to the data from Coinglass, more than $1 million in short positions were sold off during the rally, increasing upward momentum.
Monero’s price breaks out, also aligned with increasing excitement over its upcoming EP159 and EP160 upgrades.
These ideas are designed to make Monero easier to follow for regulators, allowing users to prove their transactions are valid without showing private information. Analysts think this could help Monero get relisted on major exchanges like Binance and Coinbase under Europe’s new MiCA rules.
Significantly, other privacy-focused tokens, including Zcash (ZEC), Dash (DASH), and Decred (DCR), also shared significant profits.
Monero Traced by Finnish Authorities in High-Profile Hack
Even though privacy coins like Monero are popular for providing better anonymity, Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation has reportedly made great progress in tracking XMR transactions as part of the criminal trial of Julius Aleksanteri Kivimäki.
Kivimäki is accused of hacking into a private mental health company’s database and asking for ransom payments in cryptocurrency. In the last year, prosecutors exposed a crypto trail connecting to Kivimäki’s bank account.
The suspected hacker was considered to demand 40 Bitcoin, at present valued at about 450,000 euros, in exchange for not disclosing records associated with over 33,000 patients from psychotherapy service provider Vastaamo.
When the ransom remained unpaid, Kivimäki reportedly targeted single patients. Finnish police say the hacker got paid in Bitcoin, sent the money to an exchange without proper ID checks, changed it into Monero, and then moved it to a Monero wallet.
Later, the money was said to have been sent to Binance, where it was exchanged back into Bitcoin and then moved to different wallets.
The regional officials have to keep the information private and have not revealed further information about their on-chain analysis.
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