$1.1 billion is the real culprit! Journalist's new book reveals possible identity of the hacker behind the 2016 Ethereum DAO attack

Journalist Laura Shin stated that she believes the identity of the 2016 Ethereum DAO hacker, as revealed in her new book, is true. She has detailed coverage of the matter in her special feature on Forbes on 2/22.

The Alleged Mastermind Behind $11 Billion in Ether

According to an investigation by Laura Shin, clues point to an engineer named Toby Hoenisch, who is based in Austria. At the time of the DAO hack, he was in Singapore. Hoenisch was previously a co-founder and CEO of the crypto debit card project TenX, which raised $80 million through an ICO in 2017. Hoenisch has refuted the accusations to Laura Shin but has not provided any further details.

Laura Shin stated that she used services provided by the blockchain analytics company Chainalysis to identify the hacker.

The DAO hack incident in 2016 prompted key figures in the Ethereum community, including Vitalik, to take emergency measures: a hard fork to protect substantial assets within Ethereum. However, the community that disagreed with this action continued to maintain the existing chain, resulting in the split between Ethereum Classic (ETC) and the current Ethereum (ETH).

Laura Shin revealed that the attacker had partially converted funds into Bitcoin through a ShapeShift wallet, but faced obstacles frequently. The wallet still holds over $100 million in assets. Suspects from Brazil, Switzerland, and Russia were initially considered, but the trail eventually led to a suspect based in Singapore, who was born in Germany and raised in Austria.