According to reports from PeckShield, a wallet linked to the Aztec Private Rollup Bridge exploit deposited 500 ETH worth approximately $954,000 into Tornado Cash on August 8. The security firm's analysis revealed three separate deposits of 100 ETH each, bringing the total cumulative transfers from this exploiter to 500 ETH worth approximately $953,000 at the time of the alert. PeckShield noted that the latest transactions raised the wallet's cumulative Tornado Cash deposits to this amount, though they did not identify the person or group controlling the address.
As reported by PeckShield, the Private Rollup Bridge exploit occurred in June 2025, resulting in losses of approximately $2.165 million. The stolen assets included 1,158 ETH, 150,000 DAI, and 0.47 renBTC. According to Aztec, the affected legacy product was separate from its current network and AZTEC token. The incident followed a separate attack on Aztec Connect that drained around $2.1 million from the old RollupProcessor contract on June 14, 2025.
According to PeckShield's report, the exploiter's use of Tornado Cash follows an established pattern among crypto attackers. The mixer service allows users to pool deposits and withdraw funds through different addresses, obscuring direct connections between original sending wallets and recipients. This process makes asset tracking and recovery more difficult for law enforcement. The 500 ETH transferred represents less than half of the reported value taken from the Private Rollup Bridge, suggesting potential for further activity from the labeled address.
As reported by crypto.news, the two Aztec incidents were part of a wider increase in crypto security breaches during June 2025. DefiLlama recorded $74.9 million in losses across 29 exploits during the month, including two separate Aztec incidents valued at approximately $2.1 million each. Other notable exploits included the Drift Protocol attacker depositing 23,095 ETH worth around $44.4 million into Tornado Cash in July, and the Radiant Capital and Cork Protocol exploiters routing approximately 4,520 ETH and 2,834 ETH through the service respectively.
According to crypto.news, the U.S. Treasury removed Tornado Cash and associated smart-contract addresses from its sanctions list in March 2025 following a federal appeals court ruling that the Treasury exceeded its authority by sanctioning immutable smart contracts. However, U.S. authorities continue to examine the use of crypto mixers in money laundering, sanctions evasion, and cybercrime cases, with Treasury officials maintaining concerns about their use by North Korea-linked hacking groups.
