ZKasino, a blockchain-based gambling project, has witnessed the mysterious return of over $20 million worth of bridged Ether (ETH) to its wallet. This comes after the platform founders were accused of an exit scam by users. On May 9, it was reported that nearly $21 million worth of wrapped Lido staking ETH (wstETH) had been returned to the project’s multisignature wallet. The $JAIL feed provided evidence of the transfers through Etherscan. This development has raised hopes that investors may finally receive their funds as initially promised.
ZKasino was launched on April 20 and offered an airdrop of its native token ZKAS to users who bridged ETH to the platform, with the assurance of returning the ETH. However, instead of returning the funds, the project moved around $33 million worth of users’ bridged Ethereum to the staking protocol Lido Finance. This caused widespread accusations of an exit scam, as more than 10,000 people had bridged their assets based on the promises made by the protocol.
On April 29, a 26-year-old man suspected of being involved in the alleged ZKasino scam was arrested by Dutch authorities. The suspect, who was later identified as Elham Nourzai, had around $12.2 million worth of cryptocurrencies, real estate, and luxury cars seized. It was speculated that Nourzai could be the project founder operating under the pseudonym “Derivatives Monke.”
The Binance on-chain investigations team played a crucial role in leading law enforcement to the arrest of the suspect. Binance also assisted by freezing millions of dollars worth of stolen crypto after receiving a seizure warrant. Despite the arrest, there are indications that illicit funds are still being moved on-chain, suggesting the involvement of other potential attackers. However, the recent movement of funds back to the project’s multisignature wallet has given renewed hope to the victims.
In April, apart from the ZKasino incident, scams and hacks resulted in a loss of $25.7 million worth of cryptocurrency, according to CertiK. This is the lowest figure since 2021, as reported by the on-chain intelligence firm. Additionally, the Lazarus Group has laundered over $200 million in hacked crypto since 2020.