Shiba Inu Cryptocurrency Community Faces Criticism
The Shiba Inu cryptocurrency community is currently facing heightened criticism amid new allegations regarding the handling of the Shibarium Bridge hack, which resulted in over $3 million being stolen from users. Shane Cook, the founder of Pulse Digital Marketing, publicly questioned the team’s decision not to reach out to law enforcement despite having significant evidence that could identify the hacker. This scrutiny has arisen following a comprehensive investigation that detailed the laundering of the stolen funds.
Details of the Shibarium Bridge Breach
In the aftermath of the Shibarium Bridge breach, which occurred nearly three months ago, developer Kaal Dhairya had openly acknowledged the incident and claimed that the team had engaged with both law enforcement agencies and security firms like PeckShield and Hexens. Yet, recent developments cast doubt on these claims.
Shima, a notable on-chain analyst and member of the Shiba Inu community, published an analysis that traced the movement of funds from the hacker’s initial wallet to various KuCoin deposit accounts, revealing a sophisticated laundering operation.
Investigation Findings
Shima reported that the hacker had funneled 260 ETH through the cryptocurrency mixing service Tornado Cash before moving 232.49 ETH into KuCoin accounts. His work identified 111 wallets involved in the laundering process and highlighted 45 unique accounts on the exchange. Interestingly, an accidental transfer of 0.0874 ETH inadvertently linked various “secret” wallets, ultimately providing clarity on the laundering scheme the hacker employed.
Challenges in Recovery Efforts
Upon completing his research, Shima made his findings available to the Shiba Inu team to aid in their efforts to coordinate with law enforcement. However, follow-up actions were stymied when a member of the K9 Finance team reached out to KuCoin, only to be informed that a formal law-enforcement case number was required to initiate any freezes on the suspected accounts. Consequently, KuCoin did not take action to secure the funds without this documentation, leading to frustration among those trying to recover their losses.
Calls for Action
Cook responded sharply to these developments, urging the Shiba Inu team to file a formal complaint given the wealth of evidence available. His comments, alongside Shima’s observations, have fueled concerns that the Shiba Inu developers are not adequately pursuing the hacker and, by extension, not prioritizing the recovery of stolen assets for the victims.
Shima pointed out that the roadmap for investigation was, in his words, effectively
“handed to them on a silver platter,”
yet no concrete steps have been taken by the team. He suggested that victims might need to pursue individual actions, offering to provide his complete dataset and investigative methodology to anyone affected by the hack or to law enforcement entities willing to investigate under their jurisdiction.
The community now awaits the team’s next move, as transparency and accountability are under intense scrutiny.
