Two Russian men stand accused of stealing nearly $6 million worth of XRP from Coins.ph, a Philippines-based cryptocurrency exchange.
Charges Filed Against Russian Nationals
The Philippines’ Department of Justice (DOJ) has brought cybercrime charges against Vladimir Avdeev and Sergey Yaschuck. These charges were filed at the Taguig Regional Trial Court, as reported by RBC.
Insider Knowledge Allegedly Used to Hack Coins.ph
According to the DOJ, the accused were previously consultants for Betur, the company managing Coins.ph. They allegedly exploited their insider knowledge to infiltrate the trading platform’s networks, stealing over 12 million XRP coins in the process. This hack occurred in October of the previous year.
The DOJ has filed 23 charges against Avdeev, while Yaschuck faces three charges. An investigation by Coins.ph revealed that the hackers had a detailed understanding of the platform’s network infrastructure and server systems.
Attempts to Obscure Stolen XRP Trail
Prosecutors claim the duo attempted to disguise their tracks by trading the stolen XRP for other tokens across multiple platforms. These platforms reportedly included OKX, WhiteBIT, SimpleSwap, and Fixed Float. WhiteBIT confirmed that it blocked 445,000 stolen XRP tokens at the request of Coins.ph.
Investigators noted that Avdeev and Yaschuck also utilized the OrbitBridge cross-chain protocol to convert part of the stolen cryptocurrency into other assets. Additionally, the alleged hackers attempted to transfer the stolen coins to non-custodial exchanges.
Impact on Coins.ph and Broader Crypto Community
Coins.ph is predominantly used by citizens for crypto-powered remittances. Data from CoinGecko indicated that XRP comprised almost 11% of the total trading volume on Coins.ph as of July 15. This incident is part of a broader trend of significant cyber thefts in the crypto community.
Connection to Other Major Hacks
On July 14, online investigators linked a $305 million hack of the Japanese trading platform DMM Bitcoin to the North Korea-based Lazarus Group. The similarities in laundering techniques and off-chain indicators suggest a possible connection to this incident.
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