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Nobitex Hack: What Happened to Iran’s Crypto Exchange and the $90 Million ‘Burn’

Nobitex reported unauthorized access in June 2025, followed by more than $90 million in crypto transfers. The attackers claimed responsibility, while analysts said the funds were effectively burned at inaccessible addresses.
From TheFinanceBase Team3 min to read
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On June 18, 2025, Iran’s Nobitex cryptocurrency exchange reported unauthorized access affecting its infrastructure and part of a hot wallet. Blockchain analytics firms Elliptic and Chainalysis tracked more than $90 million in crypto moving from Nobitex wallets to attacker-controlled addresses. The group Gonjeshke Darande, also known as Predatory Sparrow, claimed responsibility; analysts said the destination addresses were effectively inaccessible, leaving the funds “burned” in the practical sense—not erased from the blockchain.

What happened to Nobitex?

Nobitex reported unauthorized access on June 18, 2025, affecting its infrastructure and part of a hot wallet, according to TechCrunch and the Associated Press. AP reported that the exchange’s app and website were down while it assessed the unauthorized access. The attackers later claimed to have leaked source code, a claim reported by AP rather than independently established here.

A hot wallet is connected to systems used to facilitate cryptocurrency transactions, making access to it a security risk. The available incident accounts establish unauthorized access and transfers from exchange wallets; they do not establish the full technical entry path or the final impact on customers.

How much crypto was taken?

Elliptic identified more than $90 million moving from Nobitex wallets to hacker addresses, while Chainalysis described losses exceeding $90 million across multiple cryptocurrencies. AP also reported the more-than-$90-million estimate, citing blockchain analytics firms. These are contemporaneous estimates, not a final audited accounting; the dollar total can vary with asset prices and which transfers are counted.

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Chainalysis reported transfers involving Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Ripple, Solana, Tron and Ton. Its analysis also described Nobitex moving large quantities of Bitcoin to what appeared to be newly established cold-storage wallets afterward. That is an interpretation of on-chain activity, not confirmation of the exchange’s later security, service status or customer reimbursement.

What does it mean that the crypto was “burned”?

Elliptic said the attackers sent funds to vanity addresses containing anti-IRGC messages. Vanity addresses are made to contain selected characters; in this case, Elliptic concluded that generating the long strings while retaining the corresponding private keys was computationally infeasible. Without the private keys, the funds are effectively inaccessible, which is why the transfers were described as a burn. See Elliptic’s incident analysis.

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This was not a protocol erasing transactions or reversing transfers. The tokens remained recorded at their destination addresses, but the analysts judged them practically irretrievable. There is also an important distinction for USD-backed stablecoins: sending tokens to an inaccessible address does not destroy the underlying dollar backing held by the issuer, Elliptic noted.

Who claimed responsibility, and what is known about attribution?

Gonjeshke Darande, also known as Predatory Sparrow, publicly claimed responsibility. The claim is not the same as independently verified attribution. AP reported that Israel’s government has never officially acknowledged ties to the group, so the available sources do not establish that Israel carried out the hack.

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The group framed the attack politically, accusing Nobitex of helping Iran evade Western sanctions and transfer money to militants. That is the group’s stated rationale, not an independent finding about all of the exchange’s transactions or customers. Elliptic and Chainalysis have described specific past on-chain links between Nobitex and wallets associated with sanctioned or militant-linked actors; those findings should not be generalized to the exchange’s entire user base.

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What is known about Nobitex’s status now?

The reporting and analytics cited here document the June 2025 breach and some immediate aftermath, but do not verify Nobitex’s operating status on October 8, 2026. They also do not establish a final loss total, whether customers were reimbursed, or the exchange’s current security arrangements. A current statement from Nobitex would be needed to substantiate those present-day details.

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