• Press Releases
    • Submit a press release
    • Read All
  • Contact us
Advertise
Bitcoinist.com
No Result
View All Result
  • Bitcoin
    • News
    • Price
    • Businesses
    • Acceptance
    • Technology
    • Investment
    • Regulation
    • Reviews
    • All Bitcoin News
  • Altcoins
    • News
    • Price
    • Ethereum
    • Ripple
    • Litecoin
    • EOS
    • NAGA
    • All Altcoin News
  • Tech
    • Blockchain
    • Security
    • FinTech
    • Price
      • Bitcoin Price
      • Ethereum Price
      • Binance Coin Price
      • Litecoin Price
  • Industry
    • Industry News
    • Press Releases
  • How to
    • Buy gift cards/mobile Top Ups with Cryptos
    • What Is Bitcoin?
    • Best Bitcoin Wallet
    • Bitcoin vs Ethereum
    • Why Use Blockchain Technology?
    • Bitcoin Cash ABC vs. Bitcoin Cash SV
    • How to Buy Cryptocurrency
    • How to do Crypto Gambling
      • Crypto Casinos
        • Ethereum Casinos
        • Solana Casinos
        • LiteCoin Casinos
        • DogeCoin Casinos
        • Live Crypto Casinos
        • New Casinos
        • Instant Withdrawal Casinos
        • Cash App Casinos
        • No KYC Casinos
        • VPN Casinos
        • Offshore Casinos
          • Crypto Casinos IT
          • Crypto Casinos ES
            • All Guides
          • Crypto Casinos JP
          • Crypto Casinos SG
          • Crypto Casinos MY
          • Crypto Casinos KR
          • No GAMSTOP Casinos in UK
          • No Cruks Casinos NL
      • Crypto Betting
        • No ID sportsbooks
    • Play Crypto Games
      • Crypto Poker
      • Crypto Slots
      • Crypto Blackjack
      • Crypto Crash Gambling
        • Aviator Sites
      • Plinko
    • Bitcoin Mining
    • Best Bitcoin Brokers
    • Best Bitcoin Forex Brokers
    • How To Earn Bitcoin
    • What is Facebook Libra?
    • Ripple and XRP: The Complete Guide
  • Events
  • Play Games
Breaking News: DOJ's Largest Bitcoin Seizure: $15 Billion In BTC Linked To Cambodian 'Pig Butchering' Scam
  • Bitcoin
    • News
    • Price
    • Businesses
    • Acceptance
    • Technology
    • Investment
    • Regulation
    • Reviews
    • All Bitcoin News
  • Altcoins
    • News
    • Price
    • Ethereum
    • Ripple
    • Litecoin
    • EOS
    • NAGA
    • All Altcoin News
  • Tech
    • Blockchain
    • Security
    • FinTech
    • Price
      • Bitcoin Price
      • Ethereum Price
      • Binance Coin Price
      • Litecoin Price
  • Industry
    • Industry News
    • Press Releases
  • How to
    • Buy gift cards/mobile Top Ups with Cryptos
    • What Is Bitcoin?
    • Best Bitcoin Wallet
    • Bitcoin vs Ethereum
    • Why Use Blockchain Technology?
    • Bitcoin Cash ABC vs. Bitcoin Cash SV
    • How to Buy Cryptocurrency
    • How to do Crypto Gambling
      • Crypto Casinos
        • Ethereum Casinos
        • Solana Casinos
        • LiteCoin Casinos
        • DogeCoin Casinos
        • Live Crypto Casinos
        • New Casinos
        • Instant Withdrawal Casinos
        • Cash App Casinos
        • No KYC Casinos
        • VPN Casinos
        • Offshore Casinos
          • Crypto Casinos IT
          • Crypto Casinos ES
            • All Guides
          • Crypto Casinos JP
          • Crypto Casinos SG
          • Crypto Casinos MY
          • Crypto Casinos KR
          • No GAMSTOP Casinos in UK
          • No Cruks Casinos NL
      • Crypto Betting
        • No ID sportsbooks
    • Play Crypto Games
      • Crypto Poker
      • Crypto Slots
      • Crypto Blackjack
      • Crypto Crash Gambling
        • Aviator Sites
      • Plinko
    • Bitcoin Mining
    • Best Bitcoin Brokers
    • Best Bitcoin Forex Brokers
    • How To Earn Bitcoin
    • What is Facebook Libra?
    • Ripple and XRP: The Complete Guide
  • Events
  • Play Games
Bitcoinist.com
No Result
View All Result
Breaking News: DOJ's Largest Bitcoin Seizure: $15 Billion In BTC Linked To Cambodian 'Pig Butchering' Scam
XRP news

ZachXBT Exposes $3 Million XRP Heist After Hardware Wallet Breach

Jake Simmons
by Jake Simmons
4 hours ago
·
Posted in XRP
Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure

On-chain sleuth ZachXBT has traced a $3.05 million theft of XRP from a US retail user to a laundering route that ran through Bridgers—an aggregator formerly associated with SWFT—and into over-the-counter venues linked to Huione, the Cambodian financial network that the US government moved last week to cut off from the American financial system.

Publishing the findings on October 19, ZachXBT said a “US based victim lost $3.05M (1.2M XRP) from their Ellipal wallet,” adding: “Here’s the tracing of where the stolen funds ended up and the biggest takeaways for similar thefts.”

Inside The $3 Million XRP Robbery

In a thread, ZachXBT identified the theft address—r3cf5mgj5qEcj9n4Th28Es7NVRnXGJjkzc—by matching dates and amounts from a viral YouTube video. “Although the victim did not directly share the theft address… I found it by reviewing the date and amount,” he wrote. He cautioned that “the victim seems inexperienced and does not provide enough details to determine how the Ellipal wallet became compromised besides it being user error.”

Related Reading: Ripple Just Embedded XRP Into The World’s Treasury Plumbing, Experts Explain

According to his reconstruction, the attacker rapidly converted the XRP across chains: “The attacker created 120+ Ripple -> Tron orders via Bridgers on Oct 12, 2025. On block explorers the transactions show as Binance since Bridgers (formerly SWFT) uses them for liquidity.” The funds were consolidated on Tron at TGF3hP5GeUPKaRJeWKpvF2PVVCMrfe2bYw on October 12 and, by October 15, “were completely laundered away to OTCs adjacent to Huione (illicit online marketplace in SEA),” he wrote. Bridgers bills itself as a “cross-chain swap” platform spanning dozens of networks; DappRadar documentation has also linked Bridgers to SWFT’s AllChain Bridge stack.

The reference to Huione lands squarely in a fast-moving sanctions environment. On October 14, 2025, the US Treasury designated the Huione Group as a “primary money laundering concern,” effectively severing it from the US financial system for facilitating flows tied to Southeast Asian scam and trafficking networks; the action was coordinated alongside a UK sanctions package and parallel US actions targeting the Prince Group, a Cambodian conglomerate labeled by US authorities as a transnational criminal organization.

ZachXBT’s thread placed the Ellipal wallet at the center of user confusion rather than a zero-day exploit of the hardware itself. “One lesson our industry needs to do better with is not causing confusion with products when you offer both custodial and non-custodial products. The XRP victim thought they were using the Ellipal cold wallet product when it was a hot wallet,” he wrote, drawing a parallel to “large Coinbase support impersonation thefts” where victims move assets from an exchange account to a compromised non-custodial wallet after social-engineering.

Ellipal publicly corroborated the cold-to-hot wallet mix-up. “Our findings confirm that the loss occurred because the user mistakenly imported their cold wallet’s seed phrase into a hot wallet, which made the assets accessible online,” the company stated, stressing that its “air-gapped cold wallets remain 100% offline and have never been compromised since launch.” Ellipal said it had contacted the user and reiterated basic hygiene: never import cold-wallet seeds into app-based wallets, and keep recovery phrases and devices offline.

The laundering arc ZachXBT described—fast cross-chain hops via an aggregator, consolidation on Tron, and distribution to OTC endpoints he characterizes as “adjacent to Huione”—mirrors typologies that US authorities have warned about as scam ecosystems professionalize.

Related Reading: Pro-XRP Lawyer Reveals What Ripple’s Latest Announcement Means

In his words: “Huione has directly facilitated laundering billions in illicit funds over the past couple years from pig butchering scams, investment scams, human trafficking and hacks/exploits in Southeast Asia… I hope centralized exchanges and stablecoin issuers implement stricter controls as they are one of the bigger threats impacting the longevity of our space.”

The thread’s second theme is the structural difficulty of recovery. “The XRP victim mentioned… how they could not quickly get in touch with US law enforcement for a $3M theft,” he wrote, adding that there are “few LE qualified to handle such cases and endless victim reports so naturally incidents are overlooked,” though he cited the US, Netherlands, Singapore and France as comparatively better venues—contingent on the assigned investigator.

He also criticized much of the crypto “recovery” cottage industry: “>95% of recovery companies are predatory and charge large amounts for basic reports with few actionable insights… Bad firms would have stopped tracing this XRP theft at Binance… when in reality the service was Bridgers or would have failed to identify addresses linked to Huione.”

As for the odds of restitution, the outlook is grim. “Unfortunately the likelihood of this victim seeing any funds recovered is rather low due to a delay in reporting the theft to competent people within the private sector,” he concluded, urging rapid reporting of theft addresses to maximize the chance of freezing flows at chokepoints. He also faulted ecosystem-level support: “Ripple does not have as good of a support system for victims within their community as there is in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and major EVM chains.”

At press time, XRP traded at $2.44.

XRP price
XRP bounces from the 0.382 Fib, 1-day chart | Source: XRPUSDT on TradingView.com
Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
Editorial Process for bitcoinist is centered on delivering thoroughly researched, accurate, and unbiased content. We uphold strict sourcing standards, and each page undergoes diligent review by our team of top technology experts and seasoned editors. This process ensures the integrity, relevance, and value of our content for our readers.
ShareTweetShareShare

Sign Up for Our Newsletter!

For updates and exclusive offers enter your email.

I consent to my submitted data being collected and stored.
Jake Simmons

Jake Simmons

Follow

Jake Simmons has been a Bitcoin enthusiast since 2016. Ever since he heard about Bitcoin, he has been studying the topic every day and trying to share his knowledge with others. His goal is to contribute to Bitcoin's financial revolution, which will replace the fiat money system. Besides BTC and crypto, Jake studied Business Informatics at a university. After graduation in 2017, he has been working in the blockchain and crypto sector. You can follow Jake on Twitter at @realJakeSimmons.

Full Profile

Related Posts

XRP price $1,000

XRP Price Is Trapped Under A Bearish Structure, What Happens If It Doesn’t Break $2.5

3 hours ago
Ripple

Rumors Circulate That Ripple Is Buying $1 Billion Worth Of XRP — Here’s What We Know

1 day ago
XRP

New XRP ETF Filing Set To Hit The Books With Another Major Twist

2 days ago
Ripple XRP news

Ripple Just Embedded XRP Into The World’s Treasury Plumbing, Experts Explain

2 days ago
Ripple XRP news

$1 Billion XRP Buying Pressure Ahead? Ripple Labs Plans New DAT Initiative

2 days ago
XRP

Coinbase’s Scheduled Downtime On XRP ETF Approval Date Sparks Speculation, What’s Going On?

3 days ago

Premium Sponsors

Press Releases

  • FleetMining Turns BTC, XRP, and ETH into Daily Income

    FleetMining Turns BTC, XRP, and ETH into Daily Income with...

    2 hours ago
  • CryptoGDEX Launches Global Petition to Revolutionize Wealth Distribution

    CryptoGDEX Launches Global Petition to Revolutionize Wealth...

    3 hours ago
  • Цената на Solana

    Прогноза на ChatGPT за цената на Solana...

    3 days ago
  • WEEX Unveils Chunky Welcome Bonus: Up to 50% in Futures Rewards for New Crypto Traders.

    WEEX Unveils Chunky Welcome Bonus: Up to 50% in Futures...

    3 days ago
  • Fleet Mining New Mobile App Makes Crypto Mining Accessible

    Fleet Mining’s Mobile App Makes Crypto Mining...

    3 days ago

Bitcoin news portal providing breaking news, guides, price analysis about decentralized digital money & blockchain technology.

Bitcoin

  • News
  • Price
  • Businesses
  • Acceptance
  • Technology
  • Investment
  • Regulation
  • Reviews

Altcoins

  • News
  • Price
  • Ethereum
  • Ripple
  • Litecoin
  • EOS

Categories

  • Blockchain
  • Security
  • FinTech
  • Technology
  • Trending
  • Breaking News
  • Press Releases
  • How to

About Us

  • Advertise
  • Contact us
  • Editorial Policy
  • Privacy Policy
© 2025 Bitcoinist.com. All Rights Reserved.
  • Bitcoin
    • News
    • Price
    • Businesses
    • Acceptance
    • Technology
    • Investment
    • Regulation
    • Reviews
    • All Bitcoin News
  • Altcoins
    • News
    • Price
    • Ethereum
    • Ripple
    • Litecoin
    • EOS
    • NAGA
    • All Altcoin News
  • Tech
    • Blockchain
    • Security
    • FinTech
    • Price
      • Bitcoin Price
      • Ethereum Price
      • Binance Coin Price
      • Litecoin Price
  • Industry
    • Industry News
    • Press Releases
  • How to
    • Buy gift cards/mobile Top Ups with Cryptos
    • What Is Bitcoin?
    • Best Bitcoin Wallet
    • Bitcoin vs Ethereum
    • Why Use Blockchain Technology?
    • Bitcoin Cash ABC vs. Bitcoin Cash SV
    • How to Buy Cryptocurrency
    • How to do Crypto Gambling
      • Crypto Casinos
      • Crypto Betting
    • Play Crypto Games
      • Crypto Poker
      • Crypto Slots
      • Crypto Blackjack
      • Crypto Crash Gambling
      • Plinko
    • Bitcoin Mining
    • Best Bitcoin Brokers
    • Best Bitcoin Forex Brokers
    • How To Earn Bitcoin
    • What is Facebook Libra?
    • Ripple and XRP: The Complete Guide
  • Events
  • Play Games
Advertise

© 2025 Bitcoinist. All Rights Reserved.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy Center or Cookie Policy.