FTX Exchange ‘Hacker’ Transferred 15K ETH Over the Weekend

In a surprising turn of events, all 15,000 Ethers (ETH) that had been sitting in a wallet associated with last year’s $600 million attack on FTX have now been moved through privacy tools and bridges.

This development sheds new light on one of the ongoing mysteries surrounding the exchange’s collapse in 2022.

The Attack and Stolen Funds In November 2022, shortly after FTX and its affiliated companies filed for bankruptcy, an unknown party successfully drained various wallets, making off with as much as $600 million.

Among the stolen assets, approximately $26 million worth of ETH, equivalent to 15,000 ETH, had been dormant in a single wallet until recently.

The Recent Movement Over the weekend, the first batch of 2,500 ETH (approximately $4 million) began moving from this wallet.

These funds were routed through privacy tools and intermediary addresses, ultimately landing at the Thorchain Bridge and the Railgun privacy wallet.

Railgun is a privacy wallet that allows users to store tokens securely and use them for various decentralized financial services, including lending and borrowing. These transactions are shielded, ensuring the exact purpose of the funds remains concealed.

Thorchain, on the other hand, is a bridge that enables users to freely swap tokens between different blockchains without the risk of transfers being blocked.

A significant portion of the moved funds also found their way to a contract labeled “Metamask: Swap Router.”

Estimates indicate that addresses linked to the exploit may have successfully moved over $32 million worth of ether using Thorchain, adding another layer of complexity to the mystery.

Implications and Ongoing Mystery This movement of funds comes shortly before FTX founder and former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, goes on trial, deepening the intrigue surrounding the exchange’s collapse last year.

The identity of the party or parties responsible for the attack has never been revealed.

After the initial exploit, several addresses accumulated various tokens, including ETH and the dai (DAI) stablecoin, and swapped them for a total of 37,000 ether.

At its peak, the address held over 288,000 ether, making it the 35th-largest holder of the cryptocurrency. This latest development raises questions about the motivations and intentions behind these transactions and further underscores the complexity of the situation.