Edition of The Record reports that, according to the Whale Alert and BTCparsers, Bitcoins, stolen in 2016 from Bitfinex Exchange were transferred to other purses dozens of transactions in the range from 1 to 1200 Bitcoins at a time.
At the same time, the funds that came into motion account for only about 10% of the amount stolen from Bitfinex, because then hackers stole 119,756 BTC. The fact is that in 2016 the damage was estimated at about $ 67 million, but since then the bitcoin rate has changed significantly, and now the stolen cryptocurrency is already worth $ 7,411,135,986.
Previously, these funds were not cashed or converted, since after the Bitfinex hack, other exchanges blacklisted the addresses of the attackers, preventing them from conducting operations with stolen bitcoins. As a result, the money was still in the wallets of hackers, and this hack is still considered the largest in history.
“The fact that all these transactions were carried out at the same time, thousands of separate transactions to unknown wallets, is very suspicious. It is not clear what exactly the hackers are doing, but they chose an interesting time. This happened around the time Coinbase went public on the NASDAQ , and everyone’s attention was focused on it, ”a cryptanalyst and blogger known as Mr. Whale.
Some experts who spoke to the journalists believe that because of what happened, these funds are almost impossible to cash out, and now hackers are using them to influence the bitcoin rate against the US dollar. The fact is that the movement of such large amounts of funds usually leads to a depreciation. It looks like the hackers’ plan was successful, as yesterday bitcoin fell in price against the dollar from 64,000 to 62,000 for one BTC.
Mr. Whale disagrees with this assessment of the situation:
“Given that many cryptocurrency exchanges are not regulated in any way, I am sure hackers will find a way to convert [funds] to fiat and cash out. There are also rumors that they might sell these bitcoins to a buyer who wants them at a discounted price. In this way, both sides can benefit. “
Also, sources of the publication believe that the movement of funds is unlikely to be associated with the activities of law enforcement agencies. “These funds were stolen so thoroughly that hackers are unlikely to be caught,” says Mr. Whale.