Ah, the good ol’ days when crypto hacks involved shady deals in dark alleys. But no, ZachXBT-our modern-day crypto detective-decided to follow a trail of stolen millions that led him straight into the world of… anime NFTs. Yes, you read that right, anime! 🍜
In a post that made even the most seasoned hackers question their life choices, ZachXBT revealed how he traced $28 million of stolen funds from Bittensor through a series of anime-themed NFT trades. Forget your traditional FBI manhunt-this was a digital whodunit with a very peculiar twist. The funds had been shuffled through Railgun, a crypto mixer, leaving only a faint, pixelated trail behind. 🕵️♂️
The story begins in May 2024, when 32 TAO holders noticed their funds disappearing like socks in the laundry. The culprit? A rogue PyPi package that leaked private keys, causing a cataclysmic loss. By July 2, 2024, Bittensor had to shut down operations while developers frantically worked to close the hole. But our hero, ZachXBT, wasn’t about to let this slide-he dove into the ether, tracing stolen TAO tokens that had been swapped for Ethereum, and eventually converted into Monero via quick-swap platforms.
1/ An investigation into how I identified one of suspects tied to the $28M Bittensor hack from 2024 by identifying anime NFT wash trades linked to a former employee and earned a whitehat bounty for my efforts.
– ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 15, 2025
Following the crypto breadcrumbs
ZachXBT’s investigation led him to wallet 0x09f, where about $4.94 million was transferred into Railgun. By comparing wallet transactions, he discovered a network of shady transfers involving Ethereum, USDC, and WETH. It was like a digital treasure hunt, but with far fewer pirates and more… spreadsheets. 🏴☠️
Things took an even wilder turn when address 0x1d7-because of course, that’s how all criminal wallets are named-overpaid for four Killer GF NFTs by a whopping 18.64 ETH. You can’t make this up. More wallets joined in, washing and trading NFTs like they were on a bargain hunt. These were no mere trades; they were carefully staged plays that pointed to a wallet tied to “Rusty,” aka Ayden B, a former Opentensor engineer who seemed to have taken the phrase “leave no trace” a little too literally. 🎭
Real-world drama, legal chaos
But plot twist! Rusty (Ayden B) later admitted owning the wallet addresses in a civil lawsuit, though he was quick to deny any involvement in the actual hack. Meanwhile, Jon L (aka 0xJones) got all suspicious, deleting messages and vanishing into the digital ether like a true 21st-century villain. 😎
“You know, it’s not every day that you see an exploit or hack involving NFT wash trading,” ZachXBT quipped, clearly amused by the bizarre intersection of digital crime and anime. But hey, he added, law enforcement could now push ahead with criminal proceedings based on these findings. Who knew anime could lead to a real-world legal case? 🍿
In the end, ZachXBT’s meticulous detective work reminded us all that even in the wild, unregulated world of crypto, digital breadcrumbs can still lead to the truth. Who would’ve thought? The real moral of the story? Never underestimate the power of a well-timed NFT trade and a very persistent crypto sleuth. 🧐
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2025-10-16 14:30