ZachXBT Highlights $282M Theft of Bitcoin and Litecoin in Hardware Wallet Scam

2026-01-17 03:20:15

Source: CryptoNewsNet Original Title: ZachXBT Highlights $282M Theft of Bitcoin and Litecoin in Hardware Wallet Scam Original Link: https://cryptonews.net/news/security/32291206/ An onchain investigator reported that a victim lost more than $282 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) and Litecoin (LTC) in a scam involving a hardware wallet earlier this month.

The theft occurred on Jan. 10, 2026, around 11 p.m. UTC, and involved approximately 2.05 million LTC and 1,459 BTC. The victim was tricked in a social engineering scam.

The case highlights how even hardware wallets can be risky if someone is fooled into giving up access or approving a bad transaction. These scams don’t involve breaking code; instead, they rely on tricking the victim.

According to reports, the attacker began converting the stolen BTC and LTC into Monero (XMR) through multiple instant exchanges. Monero is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency. The attacker also bridged BTC to other networks, including Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin, using Thorchain, a cross-chain liquidity protocol.

The theft comes as security firms continue to warn that many major crypto losses come from user error and scams. Recent data shows that total exploit losses fell to about $76 million in December 2025 from $194.3 million in November, though incident activity remained elevated.

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