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A pro-Israeli hacking group announced on Wednesday, June 18, that it had hacked Iran’s crypto exchange agency Nobitex.
The group, identified as Godjenshke Darande, or “Predatory Sparrow,” claimed the attack. The breach of Nobtex is the group’s second attack in two days. On June 17, the hackers claimed to have destroyed the data stored at Iran’s national bank, Bank Sepah amid the increasing hostilities and missile attacks between Israel and Iran.
According to Reuters, Nobitex is one of Iran’s largest crypto exchange agencies. The Israeli hackers alleged that the platform helps the Iranian government avoid sanctions and finance “illicit operations” worldwide.
Following the attack, Nobitex took to X and said that earlier on June 18, Nobitex identified unauthorized access to parts of its infrastructure, specifically affecting our internal communication systems and a portion of our hot wallet.
“Immediately upon detection, all affected systems were isolated, and our internal incident response teams initiated a comprehensive investigation in accordance with industry best practices,” it added.
Gonjeshke Darande is an established hacking group with a history of sophisticated cyberattacks targeting Iran. A 2021 operation claimed by the group caused widespread gas station outages, while a 2022 attack targeting an Iranian steel mill caused a large fire and tangible offline damage.
Israel has never formally acknowledged that it is behind the group, although Israeli media has widely reported Gonjeshke Darande as “Israel-linked.”
Wednesday’s attack started in the early hours of the morning when funds were moved to hacker-controlled wallets denouncing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to blockchain analysis firm TRM Labs, which pegged the total theft at about USD 90 million across multiple types of cryptocurrencies.
This post was last modified on June 19, 2025 3:34 pm