Tracking stolen crypto is a booming business: How blockchain sleuths recover digital loot

Dalvin Brown reports:

Paolo Ardoino was on the front lines of one of the largest cryptocurrency heists of all time.

He was flooded with calls and messages in August alerting him to a breach at Poly Network, a platform where users swap tokens among popular cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Binance and Dogecoin. Hackers had made off with $610 million in crypto, belonging to tens of thousands of people. Roughly $33 million of the funds were swiftly converted into Tether, a “stable coin” with a value that mirrors the U.S. dollar.

Ardoino, Tether’s chief technology officer, took note. Typically, when savvy cybercriminals make off with cryptocurrency, they transfer the assets among online wallets through difficult-to-trace transactions. And poof — the money is lost.

Ardoino sprang into action and minutes later froze the assets.