Hacker Drained $1.7 Million In Second ETC 51% Attack: Report

In the second ethereum classic 51% attack, the hacker drained $1.7 million from exchanges as we reading more on the updates in the upcoming Ethereum Classic news.

The identical double-spending attack on Ethereum Classic blockchain a few days ago saw about $1.7 million stolen from exchanges such as Bitfinex, as the hacker drained them shortly after the attack. The second attack was identical to the first and now the ETC Labs is pursuing legal action against the attacker. The Ethereum Classic attacker made off with millions once again.

ETC 51% Attack, Aug 8 – Read our latest investigation 👇

Based on our investigation, the attacker successfully double-spent 238,306 ETC ($1.68 M) through Bitfinex and another crypto service.$ETC #ethereumclassic $ETH $BTChttps://t.co/WoffnGtsMW

— Bitquery.io ( Bloxy ) (@Bitquery_io) August 7, 2020

The news was reported today in a follow-up analysis by the blockchain intelligence company BitQuery where we can see how more than 460,000 ETC were allocated for the double-spending attack against exchanges worth more than $1.7 million converted to out of vulnerable currency and other assets. The second attack happened a while ago resembling the first 51% attack in a bold show of disregard for the consequences that come with such a huge attack and also very well documented.

The analysis found that the attacker employed the same methodology as the first attack including the purchase of the hash power from Nicehash provider daggerhashimoto. The only change was the source of ETC sent to exchanges in transactions that were overwritten later as the funds then came from wallets that received funds in the previous attack instead of moving the coins off of the exchanges to be able to send them back later. The attacker was able to spend 143,000 ETC on the exchange identified as Bitfinex while the second exchange could not have been identified.

The exploit during the attack sent ETC to exchanges while mining their blocks to delete the transactions later and this lasted for about 15 hours. After the 51% attack, the analysts confirmed that the amounts are stolen and the addresses associated with the attacker, Ethereum Classic Labs enlisted to help of the law firm Kim and Kobre and blockchain forensics company CipherTrace to bring them justice. CipherTrace CEO Dave Jevans said that both the theft of the funds and the violation of integrity are solid grounds for legal action.

Given the magnitude of the theft, the 51% attack, and the repeatability of the exploit, many believe including the creator of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin the decision that the community makes is a risk to the proof-of-stake consensus that will bring more damage if the attacks continue.