Investigators force crypto wallet drainer to shut down
While stealing hundreds of millions of USD worth of crypto assets, wallet drainers are sometimes targeted themselves. This was the case of Angel Drainer, with the criminal app being forced to shut down.
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While stealing hundreds of millions of USD worth of crypto assets, wallet drainers are sometimes targeted themselves. This was the case of Angel Drainer, with the criminal app being forced to shut down.
How? Yesterday, Match Systems, a blockchain intelligence and anti-money laundering (AML) company, said they have "made progress" in identifying the criminals behind Angel Drainer. The company also asked its social media followers, who were affected by this drainer, to help with the investigation.
Meanwhile, according to Match Systems, two hours after this announcement, they noticed that the drainer suspended its operations and is no longer available.
"We continue to accumulate data and work to identify the remaining identities involved in this criminal gang," the team said.
A screenshot, apparently from Angel Drainer's Telegram channel, confirmed the shutdown:
Angel Drainer is suspected of stealing over $25 million from 35,000 wallets. According to Match Systems, this criminal gang is also responsible for the Ledger Connect Kit attack in December 2023 – which resulted in around $600,000 in losses – and restake farming attacks this year, a new attack vector introduced by the same drainer group.
In February, the drainer was also responsible for stealing $403,000 from 128 wallets using the Safe Vault contract.
In May, another notorious crypto wallet drainer, Pink Drainer, announced its shutdown after reaching its goal of stealing more than $75 million in crypto assets. The criminals then said they "are not planning on returning in the future."
"It is very likely that our retirement will have no major impact on the scene, people will move on to other drainers just as quickly as they moved to us," the gang said.
As reported by Cybernews last week, a phishing attack targeted multiple DeFi (decentralized finance) protocols. The attackers attempted to hijack their domains and redirect visitors to malicious websites that would drain users' funds from their connected wallets.