A crypto holder lost more than $282 million in Bitcoin and Litecoin on January 10 after falling victim to a hardware wallet social engineering scam, according to blockchain investigator ZachXBT. The theft happened around 11 p.m. UTC and is now one of the largest individual crypto losses of 2026.
Soon after the funds were stolen, the attacker moved quickly. The Bitcoin and Litecoin were pushed through instant exchanges and laundered using Thorchain, then converted into Monero to hide the trail. The massive volume of conversions caused Monero’s price to spike sharply, as hundreds of millions of dollars flowed through the network in a short time.
The stolen Bitcoin was also bridged across multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, XRP, and Litecoin, making tracking and recovery even more difficult.
Hardware wallets are usually considered one of the safest ways to store crypto because private keys never leave the device. But social engineering attacks don’t break the technology — they trick the user. Victims are often fooled into giving up their recovery phrase through fake websites, phony customer support messages, or fake firmware update prompts.
ZachXBT said the exact method used in this case is still unclear. However, his investigation links this theft to a larger wallet-draining campaign that has been active since early January. That wider attack has already drained hundreds of wallets across multiple blockchains.
Most victims in the broader campaign lost smaller amounts, usually under $2,000, but the losses add up quickly. This $282 million theft stands out as the single largest hit so far.
After a quieter December — when about $76 million was lost across 26 major crypto exploits — January is already showing signs of a rebound in crypto crime. The scale of this attack has raised fresh concerns about wallet security.
So far, hardware wallet manufacturers have not issued specific warnings about this campaign. Security experts continue to stress one key rule: never share your recovery phrase, never enter it into a website, and always double-check any message claiming to come from a wallet company.
In crypto, the strongest security can still fail if trust is exploited.
