A large chunk of the bitcoins stolen from the infamous 2016 Bitfinex hack was moved by the hackers to an unknown wallet earlier today.
Bitfinex 2016 Hacked Funds on the Move
According to data from the live cryptocurrency transactions monitor Whale Alert, the hackers have moved over 64,000 BTC in 21 separate transactions.
The first transfer was of 1 BTC, worth $38,750 at the time, perhaps as a test transaction. The hackers then made subsequent transfers of varying amounts.
The biggest detected transaction was 10,000 BTC, which was sent a total of six times, while the smallest one was 0.29 BTC.
The perpetrator transferred a total of 64,643.29 BTC worth a whopping $2.47 billion at current prices. The address to which these bitcoins were sent currently holds a total of 94,643.29 BTC, worth around $3.6 billion.
Biggest Bitcoin Hack in History
The Bitfinex hack is considered one of the biggest crypto hacks to date. The cryptocurrency exchange lost a total of 119,756 BTC in a security breach on August 2, 2016.
Bitfinex had generalized the losses it incurred across all users’ accounts at the time and compensated the affected customers with one BFX token per every dollar lost. These tokens could either be exchanged for dollars or the company’s stocks.
The hackers waited for three years before they started transferring the stolen funds. Later in June 2020, they moved another 416 BTC worth around $4 million at the time.
The attackers last moved the stolen funds during the April 2021 bull run, transferring assets worth over $700 million to unknown wallet addresses.
The number of bitcoins transferred by the hackers earlier today has amounted to more than 50% of the estimated 119,756 BTC stolen from Bitfinex back in 2016.
Cashing Out
It will be extremely difficult for the hackers to cash out on some of the top crypto exchanges because most of the bitcoins associated with the attack are currently tracked and blacklisted.
Some market watchers speculate that the unknown perpetrators might be looking to manipulate the market by moving such large amounts of bitcoin at this time. Earlier today, bitcoin briefly exceeded $39,000 for the first time in ten days, before it retraced by $1,000. Now, though, the asset is close to the aforementioned level once more.
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