Crypto User Loses $282M in Bitcoin, Litecoin in Social Engineering Attack

A crypto user suffered one of the largest social engineering thefts, losing approximately $282 million in 1,459 Bitcoin (BTC) and 2.05 million Litecoin (LTC) on January 10, 2026. The attacker gained control after the victim was tricked into revealing their hardware wallet's seed phrase to someone impersonating Trezor support. The thief immediately began moving funds, converting assets into Monero (XMR) and using THORChain to bridge Bitcoin across Ethereum, XRP, and Litecoin, sparking debate over cross-chain infrastructure abuse. Security firm ZeroShadow managed to trace and freeze about $700,000 of the stolen funds before they were fully swapped into privacy coins. Investigator ZachXBT confirmed the incident was not linked to state-sponsored hacking groups like North Korea.

(Source：Cointelegraph)