A veteran Bitcoin (BTC) core developer, Luke Dashjr, made an explosive announcement via a series of tweets on January 1. Dashjr states the PGP key of his 216 $BTC holding, worth $3.6 million, is hacked. The news has sent chills down the spine of the Cryptoverse barely recuperating from the FTX losses.

Sharing the news, Dashjr tweeted:

PSA: My PGP key is compromised, and at least many of my bitcoins stolen. I have no idea how. Help please. #Bitcoin

— Luke Dashjr (@LukeDashjr) January 1, 2023

Luke says his PGP key was compromised, and that he is unaware exactly how the hack materialized. But he did figure out that CoinJoin mixing service was used by the hacker to hide funds’ tracing.  A high-amount of BTC transfer from Dashjr’s account was done to the address: 1YAR6opJCfDjBNdn5bV8b5Mcu84tv92fa via CoinJoin.

It’s troubling to learn that crypto key hacks can leave even the best of developers sleepless. Dashjr advises crypto users and investors to refrain from downloading Bitcoin Knots client. He reportedly has also stated that his twitter account is possibly hacked.

Various possibilities are tabled by the community on the Dashjr key hack incident. While some say it was in continuation of a hack that occurred earlier, others term it to be a ‘boating incident,’ meant for tax savings. One named Peter Todd, also a Bitcoin developer, quoted Dashjr’s tweet confirming the hack in question is indeed real. Todd states a ‘backdoored software’ could have been used for the hack.

Sharing his findings, Peter Todd tweeted:

FYI I've confirmed that this is real and not a Twitter hack via a mutual friend.

IIUC he used Gentoo as his desktop and didn't keep different activities separated. So backdoored software is one of many ways this could happen; he may not have been targeted.

Use @QubesOS people. https://t.co/51PuGbJabX

— Peter Todd/mempoolfullrbf=1 (@peterktodd) January 1, 2023

Upon learning about the hack incident, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) replied to Dashjr’s tweet. CZ said Binance’s security team might be able to freeze the stolen funds in case Binance is used for funds’ transfer. Ava Labs’ Emin Gun Sirer and crypto journalist Laura Shin also expressed their concerns.

Luke Dashjr’s PGP key hack reportedly sends the total hack amount in the Cryptoverse to $3 billion in 2022.