The cryptocurrency industry can have both positive and negative effects depending on your circumstances. On the one hand, you can make massive profits in the crypto market, which is undoubtedly a good aspect of the industry. However, on the other hand, the industry also has its downsides. For example, if you experience thefts, you can lose all your cryptocurrency earnings in a matter of minutes.
This scenario happened to Ivan Bianco, a blockchain gaming enthusiast from Brazil. Apparently, he was up doing his task of giving people an overview of the blockchain gaming sector through his YouTube livestream when the bad side of the crypto industry happened to him.
What Happened to the Crypto Streamer?
It was another normal day for Ivan Bianco, a blockchain gaming YouTuber from Brazil. But he had made a mistake during his livestream after he shared some documents containing his seed phrase for his crypto wallets. As a YouTuber with more than 34,000 subscribers and an accumulation of over 2.2 million views across all videos since its inception in 2017, many people were viewing him at that time.
So it was quite easy for one of them to access the crypto YouTubers wallet and make away with nearly $60,000 worth of cryptocurrency and a collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). He didn't even realize what had happened to him until he came to live in another video describing what happened. He had tried to create another wallet within minutes and transfer the funds immediately, but the hackers were faster and took away his assets.
Breaking down in detail, the hacker took 86,600 Polygon tokens worth around $50,800 at the time of the theft. Furthermore, 3.35 Ethereum, equivalent to $5,750, was transferred to an Arbitrum wallet. But that wasn't the only asset that was taken from him. Smaller portions of other cryptocurrencies were contained in the theft. Apparently, there was also an inclusion of the NFT Collection.
What Happened Next?
It is crucial to be mindful of the security of your crypto wallet details to avoid situations like what happened to Ivan Bianco. In the crypto industry, a popular saying is "Your wallet, your keys." This means that you are the sole owner of your crypto wallet only when you have exclusive access to the keys. As soon as someone else gains access to it, you are no longer the only owner.
Therefore, it is essential to ensure that your wallet seed phrase is not easily accessible to anyone else. There are also signs to know that you have been hacked, knowing these signs would help you fight back hackers and maybe regain your stolen digital assets.
In the case of Ivan Bianco, he said that someone had contacted him on Discord, where they had a long conversation. Apparently, the hacker had wiped off the funds from his wallet after the previous mistake. The hacker had admitted to taking the funds and promised to return them. According to Ivan Bianco, the hacker did keep to his word and returned the contents of the wallet. But he chose to keep the hacker's name a secret.
"I won’t say his name, because the guy returned it, and there’s no reason for me to expose him, even though what he did was wrong," Ivan Bianco said while speaking to Decrypt.