Ivan Bianco, a YouTuber from Brazil known for his blockchain gaming content on the channel “Fraternidade Crypto,” reportedly experienced a loss of nearly $60,000 worth of cryptocurrency and a collection of NFTs this week. The loss occurred due to his unintentional exposure of his crypto wallets’ seed phrases during a livestream.
During the livestream, Bianco inadvertently displayed a document containing his seed phrases, inadvertently granting unauthorized individuals access to his wallets and leading to the alleged theft of his assets. Fraternidade Crypto has gathered around 34,000 subscribers on YouTube and has accumulated over 2.2 million views across all videos since 2017.
In a subsequent livestream, Bianco was visibly emotional as he explained the unfortunate incident to his viewers. He recounted attempting to create a new wallet once he realized his seed phrases had been revealed. However, within a matter of minutes, cryptocurrency from two wallets had already been taken by unauthorized parties.
- ⚠️ O Youtuber Ivan PERDEU TODO O DINHEIRO ao vivo por abrir sem querer um bloco de notas com a sua Chave Privada.
- Autocustódia é algo que demanda extremo cuidado. Jamais guarde suas seeds e senhas no computador ou em local de fácil acesso. Perder todas as criptos é bem mais… pic.twitter.com/AxPsgQ7LWu
- — Guilherme Rennó (@RennoGuil) August 30, 2023
Bianco inadvertently disclosed the address of his Polygon wallet, which was responsible for the transfer of approximately 86,600 MATIC, valued at roughly $50,800 during the time of the incident. Another sum of 3.35 ETH (equivalent to $5,750) from his pilfered funds is reportedly trapped in a wallet on Arbitrum belonging to someone else, according to statements made by the content creator during his livestream. Allegedly, other users managed to seize smaller quantities of cryptocurrency as well.
Via email correspondence with Decrypt, Bianco confirmed the loss of approximately $60,000 worth of tokens and NFTs. He was also reported to have filed a police report about the theft, as per Protos’ account. In a communication with Decrypt, Bianco acknowledged his engagement with law enforcement.
Bianco stated, “The police don’t understand much about this, so I think this will take time. I’ll have to look for it myself together with the community.”
After the incident, an unidentified individual reached out to Bianco on Discord. They conversed via a call during which the person admitted to the theft and expressed remorse for their actions.
According to Bianco, the person said, “I messed up here, I know what I did was bad,” before abruptly ending the call and leaving.
Subsequently, the wallet responsible for the bulk of the stolen funds returned the 86,600 MATIC to Bianco. He confirmed to Decrypt that approximately $50,000 worth of cryptocurrency was restored to him. Despite skepticism from some of his followers, Bianco dismissed claims of his involvement in recovering the funds.
“I didn’t do anything to recover it. The guy wanted to return it for some reason,” Bianco clarified.
While Bianco appears to have identified the thief, he has chosen not to disclose their identity.
“I won’t say his name, because the guy returned it and there’s no reason for me to screw him, even though what he did was wrong,” Bianco stated.
Regarding other individuals who allegedly took smaller amounts of cryptocurrency from his wallet, Bianco informed Decrypt that their movements are being tracked and their locations will be determined. Moving forward, he hopes that the videos documenting the incident will act as a cautionary tale to prevent others from making the same error.