A suspected theft of 3,520 Bitcoin valued at approximately $330.7 million has triggered a sharp rally in Monero (XMR), after the stolen funds were laundered through multiple instant exchanges.

The incident, flagged by blockchain investigator ZachXBT, began when the BTC was transferred from a potential victim’s wallet to a known suspicious address.

The launderers swiftly moved the funds across more than six exchanges, converting large amounts of Bitcoin into Monero, a privacy-centric cryptocurrency renowned for its untraceable transactions.

Monero Soars 50% to Multi-Year High

The sudden surge in demand caused XMR’s price to spike by 50%, reaching highs of $329, a level unseen in years.

As of now, the token is trading at $267.03, up by 16.3% over the past day, according to data from CoinGekco.

Data from Coinglass revealed that over $1 million in short positions were liquidated during the rally, further fueling upward pressure.

Monero’s price breakout also coincided with growing anticipation around its upcoming EP159 and EP160 upgrades.

These proposals aim to make Monero more “compliance-friendly” by enabling users to prove transaction validity without revealing private details — a move analysts believe could pave the way for Monero’s relisting on major exchanges like Binance and Coinbase under Europe’s new MiCA regulations.

Notably, other privacy-focused tokens, including Zcash (ZEC), Dash (DASH), and Decred (DCR), also posted notable gains.

Finnish Authorities Trace Monero in High-Profile Hack

Despite the appeal of privacy tokens like Monero for offering enhanced anonymity, the National Bureau of Investigation in Finland reportedly made significant progress in tracing XMR transactions as part of an investigation into the criminal trial of Julius Aleksanteri Kivimäki.

Kivimäki stands accused of hacking a private mental health firm’s database and demanding ransom payments in cryptocurrencies.

Last year, prosecutors revealed a crypto trail that led to Kivimäki’s bank account.

The alleged hacker had supposedly demanded 40 Bitcoin, equivalent to approximately 450,000 euros at the time, in exchange for not exposing records belonging to over 33,000 patients from psychotherapy service provider Vastaamo.

When the ransom went unpaid, Kivimäki purportedly targeted individual patients.

Finnish police claim that the hacker received payments in Bitcoin, sent the funds to a non-compliant Know Your Customer (KYC) exchange, converted them into Monero, and then transferred them to a dedicated Monero wallet.

Subsequently, the funds were reportedly sent to Binance, where they were exchanged for Bitcoin once again before being moved to various other wallets.

The local authorities have maintained confidentiality and have not disclosed further details regarding their on-chain analysis.

The post $330M in BTC Laundered Through Monero, XMR Jumps 50% appeared first on Cryptonews.

The controversial exchange eXch plans to close its doors in May after facing allegations that it laundered crypto stolen in the record-setting Bybit exploit earlier this year.

In February, hackers looted nearly $1.5 billion worth of Ethereum (ETH) and Lido Staked Ether (stETH) from Bybit in the largest crypto theft ever and possibly the biggest heist in world history.

The blockchain research firm Elliptic, pseudonymous on-chain investigator ZachXBT and other researchers pinned the exploit on the Lazarus Group, a prolific North Korean cybercriminal outfit known for numerous high-profile hacks on major crypto platforms.

Elliptic also said that Lazarus used eXch as part of its process to launder the stolen crypto. The exchange denied the money-laundering allegations, though it did cop to processing an “insignificant” portion of the stolen Bybit funds.

This week, eXch took to the BitcoinTalk forum to announce it was shutting down on May 1st, claiming that “friends” in the state intelligence sector confirmed the exchange is the target of an “active transatlantic operation.”

“Even though we have been able to operate despite some failed attempts to shut down our infrastructure (attempts that have also been confirmed to be part of this operation), we don’t see any point in operating in a hostile environment where we are the target of SIGINT (Signals Intelligence) simply because some people misinterpret our goals. Starting from the date of the merger with a new management team this month, and as a result of some urgent meetings, the majority of us voted to cease and retreat instead of going against strong winds, because none of us want to cause any harm to innocent people or this forum.”

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