The Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged two Russian nationals, Vladimir Evgenevich Avdeev and Sergey Yaschuck, with stealing ₱340 million worth of XRP cryptocurrency from Coins.ph.
What does this mean?
This case is of significant importance as it marks the first official acknowledgment from Coins.ph regarding a hack that took place in October 2023, bringing to light the potential vulnerabilities in the cryptocurrency industry.
Despite inquiries from the media, Coins.ph had previously remained silent about the incident. They issued “no comment” in response to earlier reports from Chainalysis, which traced the movement of the stolen funds, and Whitebit Exchange, which blocked XRP deposits after Coins.ph flagged suspicious activity.
Incident Overview
Reports indicate that Avdeev and Yaschuck, both former consultants at Coins.ph, exploited their insider knowledge to access the company’s system illegally. They allegedly stole 12.2 million XRP from the Bitgo hot wallets and transferred it to an external wallet. Coins.ph’s investigation revealed that Yaschuck’s account was involved, while Avdeev was linked to suspicious logins between October 17 and 18, 2023. During this time, the company underwent “unexpected maintenance,” as reported by BitPinas.
The suspects made concerted efforts to conceal the source and destination of the stolen funds using various cryptocurrency services, significantly complicating the investigation. In legal proceedings, Avdeev faces 23 counts of cybercrime, each with a bail of ₱120,000, while Yaschuck faces three counts with the same bail amount. Both suspects, however, are currently at large.
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Source:
https://bitpinas.com/regulation/coins-ph-xrp-hackers-identified-indicted-escaped/
