In a remarkable turn of events, an anonymous hacker who managed to steal nearly $70 million in cryptocurrency from a wealthy individual, known as a whale, has returned the majority of the stolen funds. The hacker employed a clever scheme called “address poisoning” to carry out the theft.

The modus operandi involved sending a small amount of cryptocurrency to the victim’s wallet using an address that closely resembled their own. This tactic was designed to deceive the victim into copying the hacker’s address from their transaction history, resulting in the funds being sent to the wrong wallet. In this particular case, the scammer pretended to transfer 0.05 Ethereum (ETH), which led the victim to unwittingly send 1,155 Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) worth $69.3 million to the incorrect address. Subsequently, the hacker converted the WBTC into 23,000 ETH.

However, an unexpected turn of events occurred when the hacker engaged in a conversation with the whale through Etherscan’s messaging service. As a result, the hacker seemingly felt compelled to return the stolen cryptocurrency.

Blockchain tracking firm Arkham has reported that the hacker has returned almost all of the stolen funds through a series of transactions over the past few days. According to Arkham’s data, the whale has now recovered 22,960 ETH valued at $66.33 million.

Notably, the hacker did not attempt to hide or launder the stolen funds through crypto mixers or additional trades.

As of now, Ethereum is trading at $2,881, experiencing a 1.43% decline in the past 24 hours.

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