Four-Year Anniversary of Bitfinex Hack, and $12M of Stolen BTC Moved

Published at: Aug. 4, 2020

Someone with access to the 119,756 Bitcoin stolen from crypto exchange Bitfinex in 2016 moved $12 million to unknown wallets in the last six days.

According to a series of tweets posted by Whale Alert on August 3, wallet addresses known to be associated with one of the largest breaches ever of a crypto exchange moved 620 Bitcoin (BTC) — worth roughly $7 million at the time of writing — over 4 transactions. On July 29, nearly $5 million — or 448 BTC — was moved in a single transaction.

Coupled with the recent movement of $39 million from July 27-28, this makes approximately $51 million in Bitcoin transferred over 17 transactions within a week.

Four years later

On August 2, 2016, hackers breached security at Bitfinex, stealing 119,756 BTC — $72 million at the time. After four years and recent bullish behavior, their total haul is now worth $1.3 billion.

However, despite the recent $51 million movement, those responsible for the hack have moved only 1-2% of the funds they stole. This suggests that the criminals may be having difficulties as new anti-money laundering (AML) regulations are enforced. 

Crypto exchanges hacked in Europe

Cointelegraph recently reported that hackers got away with $1.39 million from European crypto trading platform 2gether on July 31. In addition, U.K.-based cryptocurrency exchange Cashaa was the victim of a cyberattack on July 10. Hackers stole more than 336 BTC, or $3.7 million at the time of press.

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