Chainalysis tracks the source of the THORChain attack: skilled in money laundering, the attack was carried out weeks after cross-chain fund movements

Chainalysis posted on the X platform that before the theft of THORChain, wallets suspected to be associated with the attacker had been transferring funds through Monero, Hyperliquid, and THORChain for several weeks. The attacker-associated wallets had already deposited into Hyperliquid positions via the Hyperliquid and Monero privacy bridge as early as the end of April. The funds were then exchanged for USDC and transferred to Arbitrum, and later bridged to Ethereum, with some ETH subsequently transferred to THORChain to become staked RUNE for newly added nodes, which are believed to be the source of the attack.

Afterward, the attacker bridged some RUNE back to Ethereum and split it into four pathways, one of which went directly to the attacker. After being transferred through intermediate wallets, 8 ETH was sent to the final wallet receiving the stolen funds 43 minutes before the attack. The funds from the other three pathways flowed in the opposite direction. These wallets bridged ETH back to Arbitrum, deposited it into Hyperliquid, and transferred it into Monero through the same privacy bridge, with the last transaction occurring less than 5 hours before the attack began.

As of Friday afternoon, the stolen funds have not yet been used, but the attacker has demonstrated their skilled cross-chain money laundering capabilities, and the Hyperliquid to Monero path may become the next move.