Bitget hackers move $4 million into Zcash’s private pool, making funds harder to trace
Hackers responsible for the Bitget exchange breach have moved $4 million worth of ZEC into Zcash's shielded pool to obscure the transaction trail. This move complicates efforts by investigators to track the stolen funds.
Why it matters
The use of privacy-focused blockchain features highlights the ongoing challenge of recovering stolen assets in the decentralized finance ecosystem.
CoinDesk’s review of transaction records found that 2,746 ZEC entered Ironwood, Zcash’s newest shielded pool, in three transfers between 08:15 and 08:46 UTC.
Pseudonymous blockchain investigator ZachXBT first flagged the movements earlier Wednesday. The money came through two intermediary addresses funded by a wallet that Bitget identified as belonging to the attacker, he said, which received nearly 18,917 ZEC during the Sept. 24 breach.
Zcash offers both public and private payments. Investigators can see how much enters a shielded pool, but transfers inside it hide the sender, recipient and amount.
That makes it harder to connect a later withdrawal to the stolen coins, although timing and amounts can still provide clues when money returns to public addresses.
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