FTX Hacker Has Started Dumping His ETH Holdings, Revealing On-Chain Data
A hacker who used an exploit to steal $600 million (roughly Rs. 4,870) worth of bankrupt FTX coins is now slowly looking to convert the looted Ethereum into Bitcoin as part of their cash-out strategy. The wallet transferred 50,000 ETH, worth more than $59 million (roughly Rs. 479 crore), to another address late Sunday. The received address is then exchanged for ETH in renBTC, a form of Bitcoin that runs on the Ethereum blockchain. After that, the address made four separate exchanges worth $59 million (roughly Rs. 479 crore), according to Etherscan.
I Etherscan data reveals that the hacker uses Ren Bridge, which facilitates cross-blockchain transfers, to move renBTC to the Bitcoin blockchain as BTC, according to on-chain researcher ZachXBTthe FTX hacker extracting Ether is the latest development in the saga that has gripped the cryptocurrency market as one of the largest and most reliable decentralized exchanges has gone down over the course of a few days.
The hacker using Ren appears to have sparked interest from researchers such as Alameda Research, FTX’s now-defunct sister company, bought Ren in early February 2021. After the collapse of the company, Ren said that it only has enough funding to continue developing its V2 until the end of 2022.
It is worth noting that the address linked to the hacker still has more than 2,00,735 ETH, worth around $236 million (roughly Rs. 1,916 crore), in its wallet.
Blockchain security and analytics firm Chainalysis had it previously announced on November 20 that the hacker had tied up the funds and could try to use various crypto exchanges to withdraw their loot from the blockchain. “The stolen funds from FTX are on the way and exchanges must remain vigilant to freeze if a hacker tries to withdraw funds,” Chainalysis said on Twitter.
In response to hacker Ether’s change, FTX is also requested exchange to secure the funds they receive that can be traced back to the hacker, to be used in the bankruptcy process.
“Exchanges should note that certain funds transferred from FTX Global and related creditors without authorization on 11/11/22 are being transferred to them through intermediate funds,” FTX said in a tweet.
