Analysis of overnight cryptocurrency transactions points to the prolific GTA 6 leaker having “cashed out” of their meme coin, earning around $270,000 in the process.
That’s according to reliable GTA watcher and crypto analyst Vice Cit, who previously posted evidence that strongly suggested the leaking antics of “Cyberleek” were part of a cryptocurrency scheme, rather than their claimed excuse of it being a protest against the death of physical media.
Every video posted by the person or persons known as Cyberleek has pointed to a website where fans could pay to vote on further leaks using the leaker’s own cryptocurrency. These leaks have since increased in frequency over the past few days, and also escalated in terms of the content they showed — revealing full frontal nudity in one recent video, and then finally beginning to spoil the game’s story in the latest clip posted to date.
The rapid release of more leaks, as well as Rockstar’s own impending official reveal of gameplay footage via Netflix, suggested to some fans that Cyberleek was getting ready to make their move and earn whatever money they could before interest waned and their currency inevitably collapsed.
Indeed, this now appears to be the case, with Cyberleek apparently pocketing all the currency’s trading fees and transferring them into at least two other sources overnight, ready for withdrawal. Vice Cit has a detailed log of where the money went, up to a point, but not enough to help identify who was actually behind it all. The fact that multiple withdrawal methods were allegedly used could point to multiple people being behind Cyberleek, Vice Cit speculated, though this cannot be confirmed.
Whether the culprit or culprits are ever caught now seems to rely on how successful Rockstar’s legal team and the relevant law authorities are at forcing social networks or crypto exchanges to divulge any personal details they hold on those responsible.
“The original setup of this whole project (the CYBERLEEK token, the website, and the file uploads) was around $29,000 at the time of my first investigation,” Vice Cit wrote. “Which means the person or group behind this leak profited around $241,000 if this is where this all ends. Not an amount to completely dismiss but is it really ‘risk your freedom money’?
“I personally believe the leaker expected to make much more from this project and the watermark messaging in the most recent clips feels kind of panicky. As the coin continued to drop over the last 24 hours and the public started to lose interest I believe the leaker made the choice to cash out.”
And then there’s the million dollar (or $241,000) question: are the GTA 6 leaks over? There’s no reason why Cyberleek couldn’t release more footage, and no suggestion they were close to getting caught. Indeed, it would be the ultimate test of Cyberleek actually caring about their stated cause of physical media if they continued posting even now. Time will tell, though at the time of writing Rockstar is now just hours from taking center stage.
Follow along with all of today’s announcements in our Grand Theft Auto 6: Extended Look liveblog.
Image credit: Rockstar.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
