An elderly U.S. citizen has become the unsuspecting victim of a $330 million Bitcoin heist, now ranked as the fifth-largest crypto theft in history. On April 28, 2025, onchain investigator ZachXBT identified a suspicious transfer of 3,520 BTC—worth over $330 million—stolen using advanced social engineering tactics.

The attacker exploited human vulnerabilities to gain access to the victim’s long-dormant wallet, which had held more than 3,000 BTC since 2017 with no significant transaction history. The stolen Bitcoin was swiftly laundered through over six instant exchanges and converted into privacy coin Monero (XMR), causing a 50% spike in its price to $339.

Onchain tracking showed the stolen funds were funneled through over 300 wallets using a “peel chain” method—breaking the funds into smaller parts to hide their origin. Hacken’s blockchain analysis tool, Extractor, traced at least $284 million through a network of over 40 wallets and 20+ exchanges, including Binance.

Binance confirmed cooperation with authorities, though experts noted that freezing exchange accounts is often slowed by legal procedures. A portion of the BTC was also bridged to Ethereum and spread across DeFi platforms, adding further complexity.

While initial speculation pointed to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, investigators say there’s no clear attribution yet. The laundering methods used are highly automated and sophisticated, unlike any known hacking group’s patterns.

Experts urge crypto holders to adopt multisig wallets, hardware cold storage, and regular key rotation to defend against such attacks. This incident follows a brutal quarter for crypto security, with over $1.6 billion stolen in Q1 2025, including a record-breaking $1.5 billion breach at Bybit by Lazarus Group.