$750m of hacked BTC moved to unknown wallet

Funds linked to a massive 2016 hack of the Bitfinex exchange have been transferred to an unknown wallet, at a total value of $750m worth of Bitcoin (BTC)

The transactions were made in the early hours of February 1. Bitfinex was hacked for more than $5bn in BTC in 2016, but the majority of the funds have not been touched until now.

Nearly all of the top centralized exchanges have at one point been hacked to various degrees. Popular cryptocurrency exchanges are always a target for hackers due to the large quantity of digital assets they hold.

This recent transfer of funds was initially reported on Twitter by popular cryptocurrency tracker, Whale Bot.

The report shows multiple transactions leading to an unknown wallet. This is not the first time funds have moved from this account.

In April 2021 there were multiple transactions from this wallet, which totalled 1,402 BTC. This occurrence has raised more red flags as 20,000 BTC has been moved.

Crypto communities around the internet have reacted in a typical manner of both fear and greed.

Some Twitter replies to the Crypto Whale post asked the hackers to send them funds while others have expressed their concern over the price of BTC if the hacker was to sell the coins.

Wallets that contain hacked coins are typically black-listed from all centralized exchanges and any funds that move to a popular exchange will be immediately frozen.

There are other methods for these funds through decentralized exchanges and various other withdrawal methods. Due to the size of this hack, these funds are likely being watched by many investigators around the world.

Bitfinex has stated they are still focused on recovering the funds. The Hong Kong based exchange is still offering a reward of 30% of any returned funds from the hack.

The funds at the time were worth around $70m but the growth of BTC in the last five years has increased the value of the stolen funds to more than $5bn.

Bitfinex was able to recover from such a loss due to their popularity at the time and their ability to offer leveraged trading much earlier than other exchanges.

All it will take is one mistake from the hacker to be caught. If they attempt to move the funds to a known wallet or exchange, it could give investigators the information required to track them down. All eyes will be on these funds now as we wait to see the final destination of these BTC.

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Written by Tudor

Works as a developer and helps keeps the digital cogs turning. Leave them alone, they're busy.

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