How One Person Lost $282M In Crypto Despite Using Hardware Wallet Security
A single victim lost more than $282 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) and Litecoin (LTC) in what blockchain investigator ZachXBT described as a hardware-wallet social engineering scam, one of the largest individual thefts disclosed so far in 2026.
The attacker quickly began laundering the proceeds by converting the stolen assets into Monero through multiple instant exchanges, activity that ZachXBT said coincided with a sharp move higher in XMR.
ZachXBT also said some Bitcoin was bridged across networks via THORChain as the thief attempted to fragment the trail.
How A Hardware Wallet Theft Happens
Hardware wallets are designed to protect private keys, but scams increasingly focus on the person, not the device.
In social engineering cases,…
