Investor Loses $91M to Social‑Engineering Scam; 783 BTC Routed Through Wasabi, Investigator Says
An individual lost 783 Bitcoin — roughly $91 million at the time — in a single transaction after falling victim to a sophisticated social‑engineering scam, according to on‑chain investigator ZachXBT.
According to the investigator’s reconstruction, the attacker(s) impersonated customer‑support representatives for both a crypto exchange and a hardware wallet provider to convince the victim to disclose wallet access credentials. The theft was reported to have taken place on August 19.
Blockchain records show the funds moved in a single large transfer and were then funneled through privacy‑enhancing tools as the perpetrator attempted to obscure the trail. Several of the stolen coins were deposited into Wasabi Wallet — a Bitcoin privacy tool commonly used to mix or obfuscate transaction history — and the attacker began “peeling” amounts off across multiple wallets shortly afterward.
ZachXBT said he has ruled out the North Korea‑linked Lazarus Group in this case, and noted the theft coincidentally occurred one year after a separate $243 million theft he previously investigated. The investigator has not publicly named suspects in the 783 BTC incident.
Security analysts and reporters say the loss is another example of how social‑engineering remains one of the most damaging threats in crypto — attackers target users directly, bypassing technical safeguards by exploiting trust. Incidents this year have included several high‑value individual losses and large exchange exploits, underlining that technical protections alone don’t eliminate risk.
As a precaution, the investigator advised treating unexpected calls, messages, or emails about wallets or account access as potential scams by default and to verify contacts through independent channels rather than links or numbers provided in unsolicited communications.
