Brazilian YouTuber Recovers Part of His Stolen Crypto After Unintended On-Stream Revelation

On Sep 1, 2023

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Ivan Bianco, who runs a Brazilian YouTube channel focusing on blockchain gaming called Fraternidade Crypto, found himself in a troublesome situation recently. During a live broadcast, he unintentionally exposed his cryptocurrency wallets’ seed phrases, enabling unknown perpetrators to snatch nearly $60,000 worth of crypto and some NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens). The channel Fraternidade Crypto, which has been running since 2017, boasts a following of around 34,000 subscribers and has received over 2.2 million views across all its videos.

⚠️ 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

It didn’t take long for Bianco to notice his grave mistake. In a follow-up livestream, a visibly distressed Bianco explained to his viewers how he’d tried to secure a new wallet the moment he realized he’d revealed his vital information. But it was too late. The cryptocurrency in two of his wallets was gone within minutes. “The police don’t understand much about this, so I think this will take time,” he told Decrypt in an email, after filing a police report. “I’ll have to look for it myself together with the community,” he added.

I know what I did was bad

Bianco’s ordeal didn’t end there. Soon after losing his funds, he got a call from an anonymous man on Discord, claiming he was the one who had taken the crypto. The individual expressed regret over his actions. “He said, ‘I fucked up here, I know what I did was bad,’ and he just hung up and left,” Bianco explained. Shortly after this conversation, Bianco was shocked to find that about $50,000 worth of the stolen cryptocurrency had been returned to him. Some fans questioned the genuineness of this turn of events, but Bianco vehemently dismissed those suspicions. “I didn’t do anything to recover it. The guy wanted to return it for some reason,” he stated.

The Redemption

In terms of specifics, 86,600 MATIC tokens were stolen from his Polygon wallet, worth about $50,800 at the time, along with another 3.35 ETH ($5,750) stuck in an Arbitrum wallet belonging to someone else. These details were divulged by Bianco himself during his livestream. Besides the significant amount returned to him, smaller amounts were allegedly taken by other users.

When asked about the thief’s identity, Bianco remained tight-lipped. “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,” he mentioned. As for the other individuals who took lesser amounts from his compromised wallet, Bianco assured that they “are being tracked and will be located.”

By sharing the unfortunate incident through his videos, Bianco aims to serve as a cautionary tale to others. He hopes that his experience will help prevent others from making the same blunder.