The attacker responsible for the October 2024 Radiant Capital hack, which resulted in a $53 million theft, has generated approximately $102.5 million in illicit profits by strategically holding and selling Ethereum (ETH). Blockchain intelligence platform Lookonchain reported on August 14, 2025, that the hacker converted all stolen assets into 21,957 ETH shortly after the exploit.
After holding the ETH for nearly ten months, the exploiter began liquidating portions amid Ethereum's price surge. On August 12, 2025, they sold 9,631 ETH for $43.94 million in DAI stablecoin at an average price of $4,562 per ETH. Subsequently, as tracked by on-chain analysts, an additional 4,326 ETH was swapped for $20.48 million in DAI. These transactions left the hacker with approximately 8,000 ETH, valued at $38 million based on Ethereum's then-price near $4,750.
The combined holdings of remaining ETH and DAI ($64.42 million) now total $102.5 million, marking a 93.5% profit. The hack itself involved social engineering tactics by the North Korea-linked group AppleJeus, who impersonated a Radiant Capital contractor via Telegram to deploy malware that compromised lending pools on Arbitrum and Binance Smart Chain.
This incident underscores a broader industry crisis, with over $3.1 billion lost to crypto hacks and scams in 2025 alone. Despite recovery efforts, the funds remain unrecovered, highlighting persistent DeFi security vulnerabilities like smart contract flaws and oracle manipulation.