- An elderly US citizen has fallen victim to a $330 million Bitcoin theft through social engineering, ranking as the fifth-largest crypto hack in history.
- A US federal judge has ruled that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) cannot reimpose sanctions on Tornado Cash crypto mixer.
- The SEC has delayed decisions on proposed Dogecoin and XRP exchange-traded funds until June 2025.
The cryptocurrency world faced significant developments this week as an elderly US citizen lost approximately $330 million in Bitcoin through a social engineering attack, a judge ruled against resanctioning Tornado Cash, and the SEC postponed decisions on Dogecoin and XRP ETFs.
The Bitcoin theft, now ranked as the fifth-largest cryptocurrency hack in history, occurred on April 28, 2025, according to on-chain investigator ZachXBT. The investigator flagged a suspicious transfer of 3,520 Bitcoin worth $330.7 million in an update on X.
The victim had reportedly held over 3,000 BTC since 2017 without any history of large transactions. After gaining access to the victim’s wallet through sophisticated social engineering tactics, the attacker immediately began laundering the stolen funds through numerous exchanges and converting them to Monero, a privacy-focused cryptocurrency.
Yehor Rudytsia, an on-chain researcher at Hacken, explained to Cointelegraph that the attacker employed a "peel chain" method to obscure the trail. "$330M in BTC was received in two transactions, then immediately distributed via peel chains," Rudytsia stated, adding that funds were channeled through "multiple instant exchanges/mixers with small amounts" creating a network of more than 40 wallets.
Court Blocks Resanctioning of Tornado Cash
In a separate development, Austin federal court judge Robert Pitman ruled on April 28 that the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control cannot reimpose sanctions against crypto mixing service Tornado Cash.
The judge declared OFAC’s original sanctions unlawful and permanently blocked the agency from enforcing further sanctions against the protocol. The Treasury had initially added Tornado Cash to its Specially Designated Nationals list in August 2022, alleging it helped launder cryptocurrency stolen by North Korea‘s Lazarus Group.
The Treasury dropped Tornado Cash from its sanctions list on March 21 following a January court ruling favorable to the protocol. The agency had argued the matter was now "moot" and that a final judgment was unnecessary in the lawsuit brought by users led by Joseph Van Loon.
SEC Delays Crypto ETF Decisions
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has extended its timeline for deciding on two proposed cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds. According to filings reviewed by Cointelegraph, the regulator postponed its rulings on both Dogecoin and XRP ETFs until June.
The delay affects NYSE Arca’s application to list Bitwise’s Dogecoin ETF and Cboe BZX Exchange’s request to list Franklin Templeton’s XRP ETF. Both applications were originally submitted in March.
Dogecoin currently ranks as the world’s leading memecoin with a market capitalization of approximately $26 billion as of April 29, according to data from CoinGecko. XRP, the native token of the XRP Ledger blockchain network, has a substantially larger market cap of around $133 billion.
✅ Follow BITNEWSBOT on Telegram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X.com, and Google News for instant updates.
Previous Articles:
- BlackRock Files for DLT Shares in $143B Treasury Trust Fund
- WinnerMining Launches AI Crypto Mining Platform for Stable Passive Income
- DOGE Aide Holding Bitcoin and Tesla Stock Raises Ethics Concerns
- Fed Quietly Boosts Bitcoin, Surging Toward $100,000 After April Dip
- Vanar Chain Launches AI-powered Compression Layer for Blockchain Storage
