The stolen Bitcoin from Bitfinex has been spotted moving after three years of laying dormant, the latest cryptocurrency news show. In a series of transactions which started on Friday, the stolen Bitfinex Bitcoin of about $1.37 million was moved through wallets.
It all started when the stolen BTC was moved from a wallet that had previously held funds taken in the 2016 Bitfinex hack. This theft costed the exchange more than $60 million and still remains unsolved.
The Twitter account Whale_Alert, which is known for posting suspicious and mysterious activities by whales, noted the mysterious BTC transfer in the morning, showing that it has continued throughout the day and ended with a $137,514 transaction at 19:47 UTC.
⚠ 17.03 #BTC (137,514 USD) of stolen funds transferred from Bitfinex Hack 2016 to unknown wallet
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) June 7, 2019
Another account named Hard Fork showed that the move was connected with Bitfinex’s Leo token which allows for the anonymous return of stolen funds. However, a spokesperson from Bitfinex named Anneka Dew was quick to follow up and be included in the daily altcoin news section, denying that the exchange was involved in the move after all.
“We are not involved, and the movement is not tied to the procedure outlined in the UNUS SED LEO white paper,” she said.
The anonymous nature of Bitcoin wallets is still a mystery for many – which is why moves like this one by the stolen Bitfinex Bitcoin are only evidence of hacker activity after the theft. As such, they can only be used for forensic analysis by blockchain sleuths – but often result in money laundering activity and hide the funds’ ultimate destination.
For those of you who don’t know or haven’t been following the best cryptocurrency news sites, the Bitfinex theft was the largest loss of Bitcoins by an exchange since the Mt. Gox hack in early 2014 which wiped away $350 million. In February this year, law enforcement in the United States managed to retrieve 27.66270285 of the stolen Bitfinex Bitcoin (BTC) which had been taken in the hack.
Right now, we are all far from even thinking about retrieving the stolen Bitfinex Bitcoin. However, it is good that accounts like Whale_Alert exist and show some activity on the wallets following their hack.
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