The hacker dubbed 'Mr White Hat' is now returning the entire stolen fortune, says Poly Network
Pink Drainer made a sudden retirement announcement following its assistance to exploiters who stole millions from crypto investors. AFP / NICOLAS ASFOURI

KEY POINTS

  • Pink Drainer said it will 'securely' destroy all stored information
  • The wallet drainer's developer previously said western victims only got 'caught in the crossfire'
  • Pink Drainer was used in thefts of some $53 million from 9,000 victims last year

Pink Drainer, a digital wallet draining service that gained notoriety in the cryptocurrency sector for aiding crypto thefts, recently announced it will shut down as the developer behind the draining kit has achieved their goal.

"After this message's publication, we will begin winding down all of our infrastructure. All stored information will be wiped and securely destroyed. We are truly happy to have supported all of you for over a year without any scams, backdooring, or major incidents," the team wrote in a private announcement on Telegram, as per a screenshot of the post first published by prominent blockchain investigator ZachXBT, who noted that more than $75 million was stolen through the drainer service.

Pink Drainer doesn't expect the retirement to have a major effect on the crypto sector, and the developer also warned users against trusting impersonators. It reiterated that the service will not return in the future.

Blockchain security firm PeckShield revealed that before the shock announcement, Pink Drainer addresses "have staked a total of ~18.1m $DAI into #Spark, constituting ~1.348% of the total $sDAI tokens." Another blockchain security firm, Scam Sniffer, said around 20,000 individuals fell victim to incidents that used Pink Drainer in just a year.

In 2023 alone, a total of $53 million was wiped from the crypto industry when exploiters used Pink Drainer to siphon funds from 9,000 victims. During the said thefts, a single crypto investor lost $4.4 million in cryptocurrencies, as per Cointelegraph's Magazine.

The wallet drainer's developer told Magazine that the people getting their wallets drained were "Chinese nationals who aren't really supposed to be doing this whole DeFi (decentralized finance) thing in the first place, [and] some westerners get caught in the crossfire."

In February, hackers briefly took over the X account of Bitcoin maximalist company MicroStrategy. At the time of the hack, the exploiters shared a now-deleted post that promoted a non-existent Ethereum token, which turned out to be a phishing link. The incident led to over $400 million in crypto losses among users who clicked the scam link.

On-chain data showed that some of the pilfered funds from the MicroStrategy X account hack had been directed to a wallet associated with Pink Drainer.

Pink Drainer's retirement comes as the digital assets sector continues to suffer from security incidents ranging from phishing scams to system breaches and sophisticated exploits. One such incident was allegedly carried out in April 2023, which resulted in the arrest of two brothers.

The siblings allegedly used "novel" hacking tactics to wipe out $25 million worth of Ether (ETH) in just a span of 12 seconds.

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