Another chunk of the 120,000 Bitcoins lost during the cyber-attack towards Bitfinex crypto exchange in 2016 has been mysteriously moved today, sparking fresh speculation over the identity of the hackers behind the theft.
Specifically, Twitter-based crypto transaction tracker Whale-alert.io has posted the evidence of the reallocation of just over 2550 BTC (equivalent to roughly $28 million at press time). In a series of transfers beginning at 12:41 p.m. ET Monday, the funds moved in nine total transactions from a wallet that had previously held Bitcoins taken in the Bitfinex hack.
⚠ 299.99 #BTC (3,241,798 USD) of stolen funds transferred from Bitfinex Hack 2016 to unknown wallet
Tx: https://t.co/3A8893y1b5 — Whale Alert (@whale_alert) July 27, 2020
The Twitter handle Whale_Alert noted the transfers this morning. They continued throughout the day, ending with a 299.99 #BTC ($3.2 million) at 19:47 UTC.
⚠ 299.99 #BTC (3,241,798 USD) of stolen funds transferred from Bitfinex Hack 2016 to unknown wallet
Tx: https://t.co/3A8893y1b5 — Whale Alert (@whale_alert) July 27, 2020
Bitfinex has reportedly confirmed that the movement has nothing to do with the firm’s processes.
Bitfinex was hacked in 2016 to the tune of 119,756 BTC, which was worth $72 million at the time of the hack, but is now equivalent to $1.3 billion given the inflation in BTC prices. Bitcoin price crossed past $11,400 earlier on Monday, rising above the $11k threshold for the first time since June.
In terms of how the hack happened and the identity of hackers themselves, it’s still pretty vague despite attempts to trace those behind the sizeable theft. All we know is that Bitfinex’s multi-signature accounts were somehow compromised, and the Exchange distributed losses amongst all users to the tune of 36% of their balances. Bitfinex promised customers that they would be reimbursed and granted them tokens called BFX equal to each customer’s exact losses. The token was already redeemed for full repayment.
Despite the efforts of law enforcement agencies, the vast majority of the stolen bitcoins are still missing, but the funds were sent to thousands of unused BTC addresses and remained unmoved for almost three years. After the incident, US authorities were able to recover less than 23 BTC that worth roughly $250,000.
