- The revelation by journalist Shin mentions that Toby Hoenisch leveraged crypto exchange Shapeshift and Wasabi wallet to spin funds and launder money.
- The Mimo Capital co-founder has denied any such findings calling them “factually inaccurate”.
One of the biggest hacks in the history of crypto remains unsolved for almost six years! Crypto journalist Laura Shin claims to have identified the person who siphoned 3.6 million Ether (ETH) from the decentralized fund, The DAO.
In one of her latest detailed articles, journalist Laura mentions that Toby Hoenisch, co-founder and CFO of Euro-pegged stablecoin project Mimo Capital, was the person behind the hack. Laura Shin cites some strong data and evidence-based on the tracked transactions. She also points out the comments made by Hoenisch who pointed at the security flaws before the attack on TheDAO.
The 2016-attack on TheDAO happened with the hacker exploiting the flaw in the code. The attacker managed to slowly drain the funds from the main platform to the newly-created DAOs. The hacker, reportedly Hoenisch, managed to steal 31 percent of TheDAO’s total Ether (ETH) stash. Back then it represented 5 percent of the total ETH ever created.
To stop the hacker from getting away with the funds, Ethereum developers had to split the blockchain into two. The result was that the hacker ended up with ETH, which is today Ethereum Classic.
How Did Hoenisch manage to steal?
Journalist Laura Shin conducted her research with Ethereum developer Alex Van de Sande and blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. The researchers alleged that Hoenisch was pretty much aware of the exploit weeks before the attack took place in June 2016.
Ethereum developer Sande notes that the Mimo Capital co-founder used crypto exchange ShapeShift for converting the stolen ETH (now ETC), following the Bitcoin hardfork. The researchers stated that the attackers used crypto wallet Wasabi to mix the BTC and “four different central exchanges” to launder the funds. Besides, they also leveraged privacy-focused cryptocurrency Grin “for added privacy”. In her Forbes article, Shin mentions:
Now that Chainalysis has disclosed with my book and article that it has the ability to de-mix Wasabi transactions, I imagine a number of people who have used that mixer for illicit purposes are feeling insecure today. This may get them wondering if blockchain forensics will catch up to them later, even if they use the latest crypto obfuscation techniques today.
However, the Mimo Capital co-founder has actually denied journalist Shin’s findings calling them “factually inaccurate”. Mimo’s community manager Thomas Reinhardt also noted on Telegram that Hoenisch has “had no active role in the day-to-day operations” of the platform since its early days. He further added: “The content of these accusations is as surprising to us as they are to the community, and we remain committed to providing the best and the safest Euro stable token DeFi platform for our users”.
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