ZachXBT: A Whale Hardware Wallet Fell Victim to a Social Engineering Scam, Losing Over $282 Million, with the Attacker Later Laundering the Funds into Monero, Causing a Price Surge of Over 60%

BlockBeats News, January 17th, On-chain detective ZachXBT posted on social media that around 11:00 PM UTC on January 10, 2026, a whale victim fell for a hardware wallet social engineering scam, losing over 282 million worth of Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin (BTC).

Subsequently, the attacker converted the stolen LTC and BTC to Monero (XMR) through multiple instant exchange platforms, causing a sharp increase in the Monero price. Some BTC was also bridged to Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin networks through the Thorchain cross-chain bridge.

BlockBeats Note: Social Engineering Scam refers to a type of scam where attackers exploit human weaknesses, psychological manipulation, and trust to deceive victims into voluntarily revealing sensitive information, assets, or permissions, rather than directly infiltrating systems through technical vulnerabilities.