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The hacking of the Bitfinex platform in August 2016 had caused a stir: nearly 120,900 bitcoins had been stolen there. No less than 416 of these BTCs have just been transferred and distributed to several other addresses.
A larceny fragmentation to muddy the waters?
Whale Alert’s Twitter bot was the first to spot suspicious movements. In addition to detecting large transfers of cryptocurrencies, this bot also signals all movements from addresses containing stolen cryptos.
In this case, about twenty transactions were carried out early in the morning of Thursday, June 11. Their goal is obviously to empty an address containing 416 bitcoins from the Bitfinex hack in 2016.
As we can see below, the pirate (s) has (have) split the spoils on 20 different addresses, in batches of 18 to 33 BTC, or transfers worth from $ 185,000 to 330,000 dollars. In total, just over $ 4 million in bitcoins were moved.
Source blockchain.com
Among these new addresses, which all seem to have been created for the occasion, 3 have already been emptied again. This reinforces the thesis of a desire to blur the trail of these rogue bitcoins.
A risk of liquidation which could cause prices to fall?
This is not the first detected movement of bitcoins stolen from the exchange platform of Bitfinex. As Decrypt recalls, 28 BTCs from the hack were moved no later than last month, as well as two other movements in June and August 2019, of 185 and 300 bitcoins respectively.
Today’s 416 BTC movement remains the largest since the piracy itself.
Obviously, this activity raises fears that hackers are looking to resell these BTCs in one way or another, via transaction anonymization services or low-profile DEX (decentralized exchanges). Given the total quantity in question, this could have a significant impact on prices. Even if only a small percentage was actually liquidated.
Law enforcement has only managed to recover 28 of the more than 120,000 BTC stolen from Bitfinex so far.
As the quantities of stolen bitcoins become fragmented, the sums involved are less and less suspicious. Although basic BTC transactions are transparent (pseudonyms), it is not unimaginable that with patience, and a little cunning, hackers find a way to sell their ill-gotten bitcoins, at least in part .
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