Hacking News
Binance Hack Launderers Mint Elon Musk and Animal Meme Coins
Elliptic reports that hackers are laundering stolen Binance cryptocurrency by minting worthless meme coins and routing funds through decentralized exchanges. The launderers create new tokens with cartoon animal and Elon Musk logos, pair them with real assets like Near or stablecoins in liquidity pools, and use them to break the direct on-chain link between the thief's wallet and the receiving wallet. The tactic was used on Tron, Near, and Solana, with the clearest example on Near where six home-made tokens were created, each costing about 25 Near tokens to mint. The tokens were traded heavily within hours and then abandoned, with the leftover liquidity pulled on Nov. 8.