on-chain detective ZachXBT successfully tracked down the suspect of the 2024 Bittensor hacker attack by tracing anime NFT money laundering transactions, and as a result received a white hat bounty. Between May and July of this year, 32 $TAO holders experienced unauthorized transfers totaling over $28 million, leading to the suspension of the Bittensor network on July 2nd.

Investigations show that the attacker carried out the theft through a malicious PyPi supply chain attack, then transferred the stolen funds through Bittensor's native bridge to Ethereum, and transferred approximately $4.94 million between multiple addresses to the privacy protocol Railgun, ultimately converting it to Monero.