Hackers steal $3.05m XRP from cold wallet, ZachXBT traces funds

Crypto investigator ZachXBT traced the funds of a victim who lost their life savings of $3.05 million in XRP.

Summary

A victim lost their life savings of $3.05M worth of XRP from an Ellipal cold wallet
The hack happened after the victim imported their seed phrase into Ellipal’s mobile app
ZachXBT traced the funds to a Southeast Asian laundering ring

Self-custody is a powerful tool for security, but only if users know what they are doing. On Sunday, Oct. 19, crypto investigator ZachXBT revealed a case of a victim losing $3.05 million in XRP from a cold wallet. The investigator ultimately traced the funds to a Southeast Asian crypto laundering ring.

1/ A video went viral on YT this week after a US based victim lost $3.05M (1.2M XRP) from their Ellipal wallet.

Here’s the tracing of where the stolen funds ended up and the biggest takeaways for similar thefts. pic.twitter.com/Gyw0OWjts4

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 19, 2025

The initial theft happened on Oct. 12, when attackers drained the victim’s (XRP) wallet. The victim used an Ellipal hardware wallet, which markets itself as a cold wallet. However, the victim made the mistake of importing their seed phrase into the Ellipal mobile app.

This effectively made it into a hot wallet, meaning it became connected to the internet. ZachXBT explained that importing a seed phrase into a mobile app completely defeats the purpose of cold storage and exposes users to hacks.