ZachXBT: The latest XMR rally was linked to a wallet exploit laundering

The latest XMR rally may be due in part to an exploit, where a single personal wallet was hacked. XMR was used to disguise the origin of funds, adding to the price expansion. 

On-chain researcher ZachXBT noted the latest Monero (XMR) rally may be due to an attempt at laundering stolen funds. The privacy coin is still liquid enough on KuCoin, where over 43% of volumes are concentrated. 

The hack coincided with some of the recent price moves of XMR in the past week, when the coin climbed above $700 and reached a series of all-time highs. 

XMR was used to launder $282M wallet theft

ZachXBT noted a large-scale attack against a wallet. Through social engineering, a hardware wallet was drained of $282M in funds, mostly in LTC and BTC. 

The attacker immediately started swapping the funds into XMR through multiple easily accessible instant exchanges. Some of the BTC was bridged and mixed through Thorchain, a network notorious for not tracking down hacked funds. 

Previously, XMR has gone through a similar expansion in April 2025, when the relatively illiquid market was used to swap out stolen funds. This time, the XMR pump coincided with the general demand for privacy coins. 

The usage of XMR to disguise funds has raised the issue of the coin’s dark side, allowing bad actors to make thefts untraceable. The exploit may be the biggest theft from a single wallet holder in the crypto space. 

XMR trading was used to launder the biggest single-wallet scam to date, surpassing even the $243M social engineering exploit that ZachXBT tracked in previous years. Attacks against whale wallets have also accelerated in the past year, for both anonymous and known crypto owners.

XMR falls 20% from its all-time peak

The rapid selling of over $282M into XMR caused one of the biggest pumps for the coin. XMR peaked above $788. Monero was briefly seen as replacing ZCash in the privacy narrative and finally making its return as both a privacy tool and a store of value.

Soon after the end of the pump, XMR backtracked. The coin is now 20% from its all-time peak, standing at $667.43 and falling faster in the past day. 

XMR set expectations for a hike similar to ZCash (ZEC), even reaching $1,000 during the latest rally. Organic demand and buying, however, are much smaller compared to the hacker’s rapid selling. The liquidity from the hack pumped XMR from $454 as of January 10 up to the new price records. 

The recent price action saw XMR lose positions within minutes, with no signs of recovery. Additionally, XMR has been captured by a single miner, with over 91% of blocks produced by Minerlabs.io, a pool associated with the Qubic project.

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