A pro-Israel hacker group stole more than USD 90 million in cryptocurrencies from Iran.

A group of hackers stole the equivalent of nearly 90 million dollars from the main cryptocurrency exchange in Iran last Wednesday, according to several sources specializing in digital asset monitoring.

The cyberattack was claimed by "Predatory Sparrow," a pro-Israel hacker group, which apparently sought to intensify pressure on the terrorist regime of Iran in the context of recent Israeli military attacks against Tehran.

Through a post in Farsi on the social network X, the group claimed to have compromised the Iranian cryptocurrency exchange platform Nobitex, accusing the Iranian regime of using it as a means to evade international sanctions.

Nevertheless, most cybercriminals seek to enrich themselves. In this case, the hackers only wanted to make their purpose clear. Instead of keeping the stolen cryptocurrencies, they destroyed them. This turns the attack into a kind of protest, and it did not have an enrichment objective.

Nobitex confirmed the incident in a statement issued on its website on the same Wednesday, indicating that it had temporarily suspended access to its platform as a preventive measure. The analytics companies Elliptic and TRM Labs corroborated that cryptocurrencies had been stolen and that these were sent to virtual wallets that included an offensive message directed at the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran (IRGC).

Additionally, another cyberattack occurred on Tuesday. Predatory Sparrow claimed to have deleted data from the Iranian state bank Sepah, arguing that the entity was used by members of the IRGC. The Fars news agency, aligned with the Iranian regime, warned about possible disruptions in the banking system, including impacts on payment services at gas stations.

On Wednesday, a new attack on the Iranian state broadcaster was also reported. During a hack, images were broadcast urging the population to rebel against the regime, although no group immediately claimed responsibility.

The hacker group

In the past five years, Predatory Sparrow has been behind high-profile cyberattacks that paralyzed Iranian steel plants and payment systems at gas stations.

The recent actions in the digital sphere, coinciding with the exchange of missiles between Israel and Iran, appear to be designed to provoke destabilization in both countries. In Israel, for example, some citizens have received mass text messages that, posing as authorities, claim that bomb shelters do not offer safety, with the aim of making them leave and be killed by Iranian missiles.

Meanwhile, the Iranian terrorist regime has urged the population to avoid using WhatsApp for fear that Israel may be spying on conversations through that application.