Large amounts of bitcoin stolen from the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex six years ago were moved by hackers early on Tuesday.
- According to Twitter account Whale Alert, bad actors transferred 10,000 bitcoins worth more than $383 million to an unknown wallet during Asian hours.
- The number of bitcoin transferred amounted to 8% of the total 119,756 BTC drained from Bitfinex in 2016, one of the biggest bitcoin hacks to date.
- Hackers last moved the stolen bitcoin in April 2021, transferring over $700 million worth of coins to unknown wallets during the bull frenzy brought by crypto exchange Coinbase’s the-then impending listing on Nasdaq.
⚠ ⚠ ⚠ ⚠ ⚠ ⚠ ⚠ ⚠ ⚠ ⚠ 10,000 #BTC (385,019,639 USD) of stolen funds transferred from Bitfinex Hack 2016 to unknown wallethttps://t.co/iLyYLoTPOQ
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) February 1, 2022
- A movement of malicious funds usually raises suspicion of bad actors looking to cash out and spooks markets.
- As noted in April last year, most of the bitcoin associated with the Bitfinex hack is widely tracked and blacklisted. Thus, hackers will have a tough time cashing out on prominent centralized exchanges.
- In other words, the latest movement of the hacked coins presents little downside risk to bitcoin. At press time, the cryptocurrency was trading largely unchanged on the day near $38,500.
Read more: $623M in Bitcoin From 2016 Bitfinex Hack Moved Under Cover of COIN Hype
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