Hackers Are Now Laundering Stolen Crypto Through Zcash Shielded Pools, On-Chain Analysts Find

Published October 18, 2026, 01:40 PKT. Based on on-chain analyst Specter's findings reported October 17, 2026 via Wu Blockchain's post on X (primary source), PANews' October 17, 2026 report (secondary source), TradingView News' October 17, 2026 report citing Wu Blockchain (secondary source), cryptofox.news' October 17 report (secondary source), and Chainalysis' October 1, 2026 report on the Bitget theft as covered by this publication (context).

On-chain analyst Specter said on October 17, 2026 that hackers behind several of this year's biggest thefts are moving stolen crypto into Zcash, using the privacy coin's shielded transactions to break the on-chain trail. The observation covers funds tied to the September 24 Bitget exchange theft, the CryptoBilis Ledger supply-chain compromise and the Triple-A treasury hack, according to posts flagged by Wu Blockchain on X and reported by PANews and TradingView News. Specter did not disclose how much has flowed into Zcash.

What Specter found on-chain

The trend began after investigator ZachXBT disclosed that the attacker behind the Bitget theft had hidden stolen funds through Zcash. "We have observed funds from other coin theft incidents flowing into ZEC, including the Cryptobills Ledger-related incident and the Triple-A hacking incident," Specter wrote, according to cryptofox.news. Specter said the attackers appear to be using Zcash's privacy features to launder funds and move them across jurisdictions and platforms while evading transaction tracing. The exact volume sitting in Zcash has not been publicly disclosed, but the frequency of the occurrences points to a strategic preference for privacy-centric protocols, the report said.

The $387 million Bitget theft that started it

The Bitget theft is the largest incident in the cluster. Chainalysis attributed the September 24 theft of roughly $387.5 million from 12 hot and warm wallets to North Korea-linked actors, pushing the regime's confirmed 2026 crypto haul past $1 billion, according to the firm's October 1 report. Notably, Chainalysis said the attackers split the loot across Ethereum at 49.7%, XRP at 40.8%, Zcash at 7.6% and Tron at 1.8%. Bitget first estimated the damage at $351.6 million before revising it to $387.5 million after finding assets on Zcash and Tron it had initially missed, the exchange said. ZachXBT's disclosure that the Bitget attacker was shielding funds through Zcash set the pattern the others then followed, Specter said.

The Ledger implants and the $12.4 million Triple-A haul

The second incident is the supply-chain compromise of Ledger hardware wallets sold through Malaysia-based reseller CryptoBilis. Ledger opened an investigation on October 9 after customers in Southeast Asia reported drained wallets; the implants copy recovery phrases and transmit them over LTE. The latest reported tally puts losses near $102 million from 324 wallets across six networks, according to an October 17 report, though Ledger has not verified the figure. The third incident is the Triple-A treasury breach: the attacker moved 4,970 ETH, worth about $12.4 million, into Tornado Cash through 56 deposits on October 9, according to blockchain security firm Salus. Specter's finding that funds from both incidents are also flowing into Zcash means the attackers are diversifying beyond the mixer.

Why shielded pools beat mixers for launderers

Zcash's shielded transactions use zk-SNARKs, zero-knowledge proofs that hide the sender, receiver and amount. Unlike transparent ledgers such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, where stolen funds can be traced address to address, shielded pools sever the audit trail at the moment of deposit. For attackers, that is cleaner than a mixer: Tornado Cash mixing leaves a trail of deposits and withdrawals that investigators can correlate with timing analysis. A shielded Zcash pool, by contrast, breaks the link between the exploit and the eventual cash-out point by design.

The regulatory collision coming

The trend lands at an awkward moment for Zcash's legitimate standing. The Winklevoss brothers' ZEC exchange-traded fund debuted earlier in October 2026, pulling the privacy coin closer to mainstream portfolios. Widespread laundering through shielded pools gives regulators fresh ammunition for tighter privacy-coin rules, while law enforcement and blockchain forensics teams face an investigation wall they cannot trace past. Chainalysis used custom AI automation to compress more than 20 hours of bridge tracing into under 10 minutes during the Bitget case, the firm said, a reminder of how far tracing has come on transparent chains and how wide the gap with shielded pools remains.

This article is news reporting and is not investment advice.

Sources

• On-chain analyst Specter's findings, reported October 17, 2026 via Wu Blockchain's post on X, primary source: funds from the Bitget theft, the CryptoBilis Ledger-related incident and the Triple-A hack observed flowing into Zcash; trend began after ZachXBT disclosed the Bitget attacker was hiding funds through ZEC; attackers appear to be using ZEC's privacy features to launder funds and evade transaction tracing; specific amounts not disclosed
• PANews, October 17, 2026, secondary source: reported Specter's findings at 11:16 UTC, naming the Bitget, CryptoBilis Ledger and Triple-A incidents
• TradingView News (BloomingBit), October 17, 2026, secondary source: reported Wu Blockchain's October 17 post citing Specter; noted the Bitget exploiter was the first major entity identified masking stolen liquidity through ZEC
• cryptofox.news, October 17, 2026, secondary source: quoted Specter's statement that attackers are using ZEC to transfer stolen funds across jurisdictions and platforms; described the zk-SNARKs mechanism and the audit-trail severing effect of shielded transactions
• Chainalysis, October 1, 2026 report, as covered by MABOnChain on October 14, 2026, secondary source: attributed the roughly $387 million September 24 Bitget theft to North Korea-linked actors; loot split across Ethereum 49.7%, XRP 40.8%, Zcash 7.6% and Tron 1.8%; Bitget revised its damage estimate from $351.6 million to $387.5 million after finding assets on Zcash and Tron it had initially missed; regime's confirmed 2026 crypto haul past $1 billion
• MABOnChain reporting, October 9-17, 2026, context: CryptoBilis Ledger implant saga, Ledger opened investigation October 9, latest reported tally near $102 million from 324 wallets across six networks, Ledger has not verified the figure; Triple-A treasury breach, 4,970 ETH worth about $12.4 million moved into Tornado Cash through 56 deposits on October 9 per security firm Salus