Social-Engineering Theft Drains About 3,520 BTC From an Elderly U.S. Holder
An elderly U.S. Bitcoin holder lost roughly 3,520 BTC in a social-engineering theft worth about $330 million, one of the largest known thefts from an individual holder.
On April 27, 2025, a suspicious transfer moved approximately 3,520 BTC, worth about $330 million at the time, from a longtime holder's wallet. On-chain investigator ZachXBT later said the victim was an elderly person in the United States who had been targeted through social engineering.
The stolen Bitcoin was rapidly routed through multiple exchanges and converted in part into Monero in an effort to obscure the trail. The size of the swaps was large enough to produce a sharp short-term move in Monero's price, making the laundering activity visible beyond the victim's wallet.
The theft was historically distinctive because of both scale and mechanism. It showed that some of the largest Bitcoin losses no longer required an exchange hack or protocol exploit: attackers could target a single holder, manipulate the person rather than the software, and extract access to bearer wealth worth hundreds of millions of dollars.