According to journalist Laura Shin and Blockchain data security firm Chainalysis, in 2016, a programmer, Toby Hoenisch, allegedly stole 3.6 million ETH from The DAO, worth roughly $9 billion today.
The co-founder and former CEO of a cryptocurrency startup TenX has been accused of stealing a massive Ethereum stash in The DAO hack six years ago. The stolen crypto is worth $9 to $11 billion today. However, the ex-CEO has denied the claims made by journalist Laura Shin in her article published in Forbes.
DAO Hack- Largest Crypto Hacks Ever
In 2016, a programmer, Toby Hoenisch, allegedly stole 3.6 million ETH from The DAO, worth roughly $9 billion today. This hack led to Ether’s history’s most controversial decisions- the hard fork that created the Ethereum blockchain and the original network Ethereum Classic.
The DAO was among the world’s first-ever decentralized autonomous organizations. It served as an open-source platform to fund crypto projects and raised around 12.7 million ETH through crowdfunding. The amount was valued at $150 million at that time. During the hack attack, the organization lost nearly one-third of the project’s funds.
Details of the Findings
According to Shin, this finding is part of an extensive investigation for her upcoming book. The joint investigation with Chainalysis led Shin to 36-year-old Hoenisch, an Austria-native who resided in Singapore at the time of the hack.
According to their findings, Hoenisch’s company TenX participated in the ICO (initial coin offer) just a year after the hack and raised $80 million with their offer. The company also launched a token, which met the same fate as many other cryptocurrencies launched with an ICO as it failed.
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Hoenisch Denies Claims
Toby Hoenisch has denied all the claims and accusations made by Shin and told her in an email that the “statement and conclusion is factually inaccurate.” However, Shin alleges that evidence indicated someone exchanged the Bitcoin for the privacy coin called Grin. This coin was withdrawn to a non-custodial Grin node dubbed grin.toby.ai.
As per Shin, Hoenisch used the name toby.ai on most of his social media accounts and in one of his email IDs. Furthermore, the IP address that hosted that node hosted another node titled TenX.
For your information, TenX was shut down shortly after raising $80 million in an ICO after its card issuer Wirecard filed for liquidation. It was later rebranded as Mimi Capital, a stablecoin project.
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