Pro-Israel Hackers Claim They Took $90 million From Iran Crypto Exchange Used To Evade Sanctions
Gonjeshke Darande (i.e., “Predatory Sparrow” ) claims to have destroyed data at Iran’s Bank Sepah as well.
There has been major cyberattack targeting Iran’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Nobitex, by a hacking group with strong links to Israel.
On Wednesday, hackers siphoned approximately $90 million from Nobitex, according to multiple independent blockchain analytics firms. The group behind the attack, known as Gonjeshke Darande or “Predatory Sparrow,”. This group is widely believed to be pro-Israel and has previously claimed responsibility for disruptive cyber operations against Iranian infrastructure.
In a post in Farsi on X, the hackers said that they had hit Iranian crypto exchange Nobitex, claiming that Iran used the exchange to skirt international sanctions. And in an extraordinary move, the hackers may have effectively thrown the stolen crypto away by transferring it to digital “wallets” that they don’t have control over, according to multiple cybersecurity experts.
Nobitex acknowledged the incident in a statement on its website on Wednesday, saying that access to the crypto exchange had been “suspended,” as a precaution, until further notice. Crypto-tracking firms Elliptic and TRM Labs confirmed the crypto was stolen and sent to “wallets” or crypto accounts, with an expletive that referenced Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
After the IRGC’s “Bank Sepah” comes the turn of Nobitex
WARNING!In 24 hours, we will release Nobitex's source code and internal information from their internal network.
Any assets that remain there after that point will be at risk!The Nobitex exchange is at the heart of the… pic.twitter.com/GFyBCPCFIE
— Gonjeshke Darande (@GonjeshkeDarand) June 18, 2025
The hackers publicly announced their actions in a Farsi message on social media, stating that Nobitex was being targeted because it allegedly helped Iran evade international sanctions and supported the activities of the IRGC, which is designated as a terrorist organization by several Western countries.
Notably, the stolen cryptocurrency was not taken for financial gain, but essential relocated to an electronic “black hole“.
The vanity addresses used by the hackers are generated through “brute force” methods – involving the creation of large numbers of cryptographic key pairs until one contains the desired text. But creating vanity addresses with text strings as long as those used in this hack is computationally infeasible.
This means that Predatory Sparrow would not have the private keys for the crypto addresses they sent the Nobitex funds to, and have effectively burned the funds* in order to send Nobitex a political message.
Shocking: Over $80M in Stolen Crypto Funds from Nobitex Hack Sent to Likely Black Hole Addresshttps://t.co/CQ9Uz2qNCI pic.twitter.com/R0Tt5H9MJJ
— BitcoinWorld Media (@ItsBitcoinWorld) June 18, 2025
Gonjeshke Darande has hacked Iranian firms before, previously hitting gas stations and a steel mill.
Gonjeshke Darande is an established hacking group with a history of sophisticated cyberattacks targeting Iran. A 2021 operation claimed by the group caused widespread gas station outages, while a 2022 attack targeting an Iranian steel mill caused a large fire and tangible, offline damage.
Israel has never formally acknowledged that it is behind the group, although Israeli media has widely reported Gonjeshke Darande as “Israel-linked.”
Wednesday’s attack started in the early hours of the morning when funds were moved to hacker-controlled wallets denouncing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to blockchain analysis firm TRM Labs, which pegged the total theft at about $90 million across multiple types of cryptocurrencies.
In addition to the Nobitex attack, Gonjeshke Darande also claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on Iran’s state-owned Bank Sepah the previous day, where they allegedly erased data and disrupted banking services.
The bank’s website was offline on Tuesday and its London-based subsidiary, Bank Sepah International plc, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Customers were having problems accessing their accounts, according to Israeli media.
Gonjeshke Darande did not respond to multiple messages sent via social media.
“Disrupting the availability of this bank’s funds, or triggering a broader collapse of trust in Iranian banks, could have major impacts there,” Rob Joyce, the former top cybersecurity official at the NSA, said in a post on X.
Destruction of the infrastructure of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “Bank Sepah”
We, “Gonjeshke Darande”, conducted cyberattacks which destroyed the data of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ “Bank Sepah”.“Bank Sepah” was an institution that circumvented… pic.twitter.com/1r4XyDmXcJ
— Gonjeshke Darande (@GonjeshkeDarand) June 17, 2025
Iranians at home and abroad are reporting major disruptions to banking and internet services.
The bank’s website and mobile services remain inaccessible. Users reported Sepah cards are all non-functional, with some ATMs across Tehran and other provinces out of cash.
Despite official denials, users across the country told Iran International that major banks, including Melli, Pasargad, and Eghtesad-e Novin, are also facing service failures.
“I’ve visited ten ATMs today,” said one man in Tehran. “None had any cash.”
BREAKING:
Major problems with accessing bank services in Iran.
Both ATMs and card readers aren’t working at many locations. Lots of bank offices are closed. Panic is starting to spread as people fear that they have lost their life savings. pic.twitter.com/KQGXbPRX7o
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) June 17, 2025
I sure hope our government officials are paying attention to the importance of cybersecurity.
Image by perplexity.ai.
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Comments
We found out someone has been using My husbands SS number
They want us to
All go digital personally, I think I need to go all cash and hide it in my mattress
Identity theft is a pox on humanity. I had a family member who was a victim of it several years ago. It was an indescribable horror show that impacted her and her family in ways they (and most people) could never have foreseen. I’m really surprised there’s not any kind of national effort to put an end to it. It has to cost the country tens and tens of billions each year. BTW, the chances an illegal alien was involved are very high.
“thrown the stolen crypto away by transferring it to digital “wallets” that they don’t have control over”
Checking my wallets right now to see if I won the Durka-Durka Lottery.
Can you loan me a couple of million dollars from your new found wealth. Dollars or gold even. Not that crypto BS.
Trump vetoed Israeli plan to kill Iran’s supreme leader, US officials say,
Trump needs to go to Hell, for eternity.
You are incredibly silly.
Trump is smart. Taking out the Ayatollah may escalate things even further. As much as we all want him to go, there’s no guarantee things will improve if he does and a very high chance things will get worse.
We cannot respect ideas like “Can’t kill Khamenei, then the IRGC will get even worse.” If Trump said it, I don’t like that either. They are being as bad as possible already. Taking out Hamas and Hezbollah leadership was quite effective, and I see no reason to think this would be different. The Iranian people want this regime gone.
The Iranians will do it themselves. Only a matter of time. But you are such a hateful loser.
No, it’s not so easy for them. There are Muslim supporters of the regime there, and they will be empowered. It’s very hard to fight aggressive Muslims even when they don’t have strong hooks into the government, as we’ve seen. We need to help them.
Trump is not interested in your little roomshare fantasy.
You are a complete fool.
Trump has made millions and millions of dollars as President with his Crypto currency scam.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-YDvFnVK3o
There are probably hundreds of Trump supporters here who have lost millions of dollars on Trump’s crypto currency scams. I genuinely feel sorry for you. Maybe you should invest in his bubble gum hero trading cards.
You are incredibly silly. And stop upvoting your own posts; so childish.
I upvoted him to keep him company.
I disagree with.every thing he agrees to, but I’d feel bad if he were to strangle himself alone.
I wouldn’t although I would prefer the site add an “ignore user” button. There are at least 3 people I’d like to ignore her for their stupidity.
David Carradine found it exciting, I would expect JR would as well.
You “genuinely” feel sorry as you gloat. Just like a hateful loser.
Shut up, you retard.
LI Admins, would you please ban this stupid bastard.
The retard is dropping links from MSNBC now. 😂
Maybe the Shah will return and form a government and allow for Fordow to be destroyed from within, unless it’s gone by then. In any case, the world will be more peaceful and safe, even if the haters won’t admit it or only behind closed doors.
Funny thing about deep underground, highly hardened bunkers – they have access points at the surface. Meaning that they have shafts that provide entry for personnel, air, and probably fairly large machinery. Then there are the shafts that descend from the access points. Got a bomb that’ll penetrate 200 feet of ground, but not a thousand? No problemo. Attack the shafts at the surface all the way down to 200 feet (or whatever you can reach). It’s just not necessary to reach the installation when you can destroy access to it.
The Israelis are also nuts enough to launch an airborne assault on a facility they can’t reach with air-delivered munitions, take it over physically, and destroy the installation with demolitions on the inside. Wouldn’t put it past them.
Said that a few days ago. A covert action like Entebbe. Could the Iranian army stop the from penetrating the site? And once inside, blow it to hell.
The Iranian army (Persians, presumably) would help them! But the Republican Guard (Muslims) are what they would have to fight.
I feel pretty confident that Mossad has a few nice tricks up their sleeves.
Ok, off topic, but speaking of digital money, someone explain to me why the average consumer, making a large purchase online or anywhere, would really prefer to use a stablecoin. Most would not want, or maybe not be able, to immediately make the full payment in cash but that’s exactly the equivalent of what a stablecoin purchase would be. So what if it’s faster for the merchant or more convenient for them, unless they pass the cost savings down (wishful unrealistic thinking). For the average consumer experience, this new fad seems like nonsense.
Good question. I don’t really get it either. My experience has been crypto/digital currency isn’t appreciably faster nor cheaper than the more traditional payment methods (from a consumer standpoint). With respect to big ticket items that otherwise might be transacted in cash or wire transfer, I also haven’t found expediency or cost-saving to be things with crypto. In fact, I go to a fair share of auctions (mostly cars, but other stuff as well), and at most auction houses, there’s a surcharge to use crypto (with almost all houses actually only accepting Bitpay). That surcharge isn’t added for wire transfers (although you may have to pay your bank depending on that relationship). Personally, the only real benefit I can see is for people who are deeply invested in DiFi (which I’m not). I will say I am surprised at the growing number of retailers who are accepting some kind of crypto/crypto-app for payment. It’s definitely a thing now. And/But, I’ve never seen any retailer offer a crypto/digital discount. If it’s cheaper for them, they’re not passing that savings along (from what I’ve seen).
Well, I guess it would be faster to move money and maybe cheaper, but you still have to buy the money to move the money. But this could happen between banks/institutions behind the scenes. And despite new laws and regulations, I would rather rely on something issued by my bank than some fintech company. I wonder what will happen to those independent issuers when banks get in on the game?
W/respect to your last question, I don’t think they’ll be impacted in any great way….at first. I know two of the financial institutions I use – JP Morgan & USAA – both offer crypto services to varying degrees. JP Morgan seems to be really leaning into it. My guess is banks will first look to integrate existing crypto services, like Coinbase and whatnot, into their own financial services suites. But, if they do start their own competing currencies, I guess things could really change (also, I’m not sure if that would be allowed by regulators under current banking laws). I do wonder if people who are really invested in digital currencies will be drawn to Big Banking crypto if it materializes. I suspect they won’t. But, that could be very wrong.
I think the stablecoin contemplated by some banks and corporations wouldn’t strictly be aimed at the traditional shady crypto crowd but is meant to have a broader appeal in the operation of payment system efficiencies and cost savings. Not to regular consumers of course but to business.
But, I didn’t realize that JPM may be on the verge of allowing clients to buy bitcoin. Bitcoin is whole level of irrational above stablecoins. I don’t believe bitcoin is even addressed in the pending legislation. Never go full bitcoin.
My initial reaction was joy that so much money was stripped from evil Iran. $90 million! It took all of a second to think of the billions here and the billions there of waste that DOGE (remember them?) uncovered in the first days of their work. $90 million sounds like a lot, and maybe it is in the Iranian economy, but that’s just a rounding error over here. I’m not complaining, though, because whatever adds to the misfortune of the mullahs in Iran is fine by me.
Crypto has never made sense, the dollar has served the United States of America since we have had a federal currency, and it is what the world economy revolves around.
Trying to undermine it is the height of stupidity and I have never understood why that was the apparent agenda of many on the right.
I was overjoyed when the Facebook currency failed, and I have no idea why I am supposed to be cheering for crypto.
Currency is always a bit abstract.
When it is issued by a government is different from when it is issued by a private citizen.
“Trying to undermine it is the height of stupidity and I have never understood why that was the apparent agenda of many on the right.”
Because governments can’t steal your wealth by inflating it.
My first house (4b/3ba) cost me $80k. For that much today, I can barely buy a camper van.
In 2010, a guy spent 10K Bitcoin for two pizzas. Today, he could buy Epstein Island with that, and have enough left over to equip the local sharks with fricking laser beams.
A righteous sparrow!