(UPDATE, August 28): Since publishing this text, I used to be contacted by unbiased researcher xorextrace, who has printed a separate on-chain evaluation of the CyberLeek crypto path together with the code wanted to breed it. All credit score goes to xorextrace for this very good work. In easier phrases: we are able to now reproduce the important thing cash actions ourselves, making Vice Cit’s reporting much more plausible.
I ought to stress that I’m not a blockchain analyst. I’m a video games journalist attempting to confirm another person’s technical work as fastidiously as I can. With that stated, I downloaded contemporary Solana transaction knowledge and ran xorextrace’s instruments myself.
The sooner funding figures checked out, together with the 331.66 SOL despatched into the pockets liable for creating the $CYBERLEEK token. I additionally manually checked a number of of these transactions on Solscan and located the quantities, addresses and timestamps matched the script’s output.
Extra importantly for this story, the up to date instruments additionally reproduced the August 27 cash-out that has led to hypothesis that Cyberleek is taking the revenue and getting the hell out of dodge. Round 3,210.80 SOL left the $CYBERLEEK token operation by means of a sequence of contemporary wallets. Of that, roughly 1,336.67 SOL may very well be cleanly traced to an tackle labelled by Solscan as a CCE.Money trade deposit pockets, whereas round 543.90 SOL reached an tackle labelled as a KuCoin trade deposit tackle. I manually checked each endpoint labels on Solscan as effectively.
xorextrace has really grow to be extra conservative with the KuCoin determine because the authentic report. Extra funds later attain shared KuCoin-labelled infrastructure, however as soon as these funds are blended with unrelated cash, they will not be cleanly attributed to CyberLeek. Quite than stretching the quantity, the up to date evaluation leaves them out.
That offers me significantly extra confidence in Vice Cit’s authentic reporting. I’ve not carried out my very own forensic investigation right here — xorextrace did the onerous work — however I used to be in a position to reproduce the important thing figures from contemporary public knowledge somewhat than merely taking them on belief.
None of this identifies the particular person behind CyberLeek. The current silence from CyberLeek doesn’t show they’re disappearing both.
Nonetheless, the timing is attention-grabbing: the leaks have gone quiet simply as the cash started shifting, which inserts Vice Cit’s principle that the operation could also be winding down. Rockstar’s huge official GTA 6 gameplay reveal might also merely have made additional leaks much less beneficial.
xorextrace has printed the complete report and verification instruments on GitHub for anybody who desires to dig into the technical particulars themselves.
(ORIGINAL STORY):The more and more weird CyberLeek saga could lastly be coming to an finish simply as Rockstar exhibits off GTA 6 on Netflix, with a brand new blockchain investigation claiming the leaker has began shifting round $270,000 earned by means of the cryptocurrency connected to the leaks.
I’ve talked about CyberLeek’s unusual operation a couple of instances now, together with the $CYBERLEEK meme coin that turned more and more central to the entire thing and the conspiracy principle that it has all been a advertising stunt. Quite than merely dumping an enormous reserve of tokens in a conventional rug pull, CyberLeek burned round 270 million tokens and seems to have as a substitute made cash from transaction charges generated every time individuals purchased and offered the coin.
In keeping with GTAForums person Vice Cit, who has been steadily following the crypto path throughout a number of prolonged investigations, CyberLeek claimed roughly $270,000 price of buying and selling charges earlier than changing the proceeds into Solana and shifting the cash by means of a number of completely different wallets.
Vice Cit traced round $99,000 of that to KuCoin, whereas one other $84,000 was despatched by means of CCE.Money, a crypto swapping service that doesn’t require customers to create an account. The remaining roughly $91,000 was unfold between wallets that, on the time of his investigation, had but to maneuver the funds elsewhere.
Which means “cashed out” maybe isn’t fully correct simply but, as a sizeable chunk of the cash remains to be sitting in crypto wallets. But it surely definitely seems like CyberLeek has began extracting the proceeds from the challenge in in all probability essentially the most predictable plot twist ever.
Maybe extra apparently, Vice Cit estimates that setting the whole factor up initially value round $29,000, together with funding the token, web site and file internet hosting. If his figures are right, that would depart CyberLeek with someplace within the area of $241,000 in revenue.
Not unhealthy cash. Whether or not it’s “threat having Take-Two’s legal professionals making an attempt to crawl by means of your bed room window” cash is one other query.
Using two completely different withdrawal strategies has additionally led Vice Cit to wonder if CyberLeek may very well contain a couple of particular person — probably anyone organising the operation and anyone else supplying the leaked footage.
What does make the timing attention-grabbing is that CyberLeek seems to have out of the blue gone quiet. The timing is smart, too: with the prolonged have a look at GTA 6 having simply occurred and it about to seem on Netflix, the leaks are a bit much less impactful.
There hasn’t been one other ballot asking customers what footage they need to see subsequent, and Vice Cit notes that the newest leak appeared to tease one other half that hasn’t but materialised. In the meantime, the $CYBERLEEK token has dropped considerably from its peak as consideration surrounding the leaks begins to fade. Individuals have started turning on CyberLeek slightly extra, and every leak got here with much more outstanding pushes to by the memcoin.
Put all of that collectively and the suggestion is that CyberLeek could merely be winding the operation down whereas taking the cash made alongside the way in which.
