A crypto user has lost more than $282 million in Bitcoin and Litecoin after falling victim to a highly coordinated social engineering attack.
The incident ranks among the largest individual crypto thefts ever recorded, according to blockchain investigators.
The theft occurred on 10 January 2026 at around 11:00 pm UTC, based on on-chain data analysis.
The victim was reportedly deceived by an attacker posing as official Trezor customer support.
The impersonator allegedly convinced the user to disclose their hardware wallet seed phrase.
Once the seed phrase was revealed, the attacker gained full control over the wallet.
Blockchain investigator ZachXBT was among the first to flag the suspicious wallet activity.
The attacker swiftly transferred the funds across multiple networks to complicate tracking efforts.
A total of 1,459 Bitcoin, valued at roughly $139 million, were drained from the compromised wallet.
The wallet also held around 2.05 million Litecoin, worth approximately $153 million at the time of the theft.
ZachXBT said the stolen assets were rapidly dispersed using decentralised liquidity routes.
Large portions of the funds were converted into Monero (CRYPTO:XMR) through instant exchange services.
The sudden inflow triggered a noticeable spike in Monero’s on-chain activity and price.
Investigators observed the attacker using THORChain to bridge assets between blockchains.
Bitcoin was moved across Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH), Ripple (CRYPTO:XRP), and Litecoin networks without using centralised exchanges.
The activity renewed concerns about how cross-chain infrastructure can be misused during major thefts.
Security firm ZeroShadow said it was alerted to the incident by blockchain monitoring partners.
The firm claimed it tracked parts of the stolen funds in near real time.
Within roughly 20 minutes, about $700,000 worth of assets were reportedly frozen.
ZeroShadow said the frozen funds were intercepted before being fully swapped into privacy coins.
The address belonged to an individual tricked into sharing their seed phrase by someone impersonating Trezor Value Wallet support.
ZeroShadow said.
ZachXBT dismissed speculation linking the theft to state-backed hacking groups.
It’s not North Korea.
ZachXBT wrote in response to online claims.
The case has intensified debate around user education and wallet security practices.
Social engineering remains one of the most effective attack vectors in the crypto sector.
The incident echoes another high-profile scam reported last year involving an elderly US Bitcoin holder.
That victim reportedly lost around $330 million worth of Bitcoin in a separate social engineering attack.
Blockchain data showed the funds in that case had remained dormant since 2017.
The attacker laundered the stolen Bitcoin using peel chains and instant exchanges.
Much of the laundered Bitcoin was ultimately swapped into Monero to obscure its trail.
At the time of reporting, Bitcoin price was $95,259.76.