Attackers from the 2016 Bitfinex exchange hack are looking to cash in on their heist by transferring their holdings to unknown wallets. As per data provided by blockchain security firm Elliptic, hackers have transferred more than 94,600 Bitcoins, worth more than $3.5 billion at press time.
The figures are a big part of what was stolen in one of the biggest cryptocurrency hacks to date. At the time, the attackers stole a total of 119,756 BTC after hacking users’ segregated wallets even with its tie-up with Palo Alto-based security firm BitGo. The stolen sum was worth $75 million at the time of the hack.
The news first came to light after a Twitter account, named Whale Alert, reported a transfer of 10,000 BTC occurring on February 1, 04:27 UTC. Thereafter, the account further reported multiple other transactions within three hours, taking the total to 64,641.29 BTC.
⚠ ⚠ ⚠ ⚠ ⚠ ⚠ ⚠ ⚠ ⚠ ⚠ 10,000 #BTC (385,019,639 USD) of stolen funds transferred from Bitfinex Hack 2016 to unknown wallethttps://t.co/7KmjWdRitv
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) February 1, 2022
Now, as per data by Elliptic, the hackers have moved 94,643.29 bitcoins across 26 transactions to unknown wallets. The report read:
“It is unlikely that these funds will be cashed out any time soon. Funds from this hack have been slowly laundered for over five years now and cashing-out large volumes over a short period of time would draw unwanted attention.”
Hackers previously moved funds worth $700 million to unknown wallets in April 2021, about 10% of the total BTC stolen. Since most of the Bitcoins associated with the hack have been blacklisted, the hackers will likely be unable to cash out the bitcoins via exchanges.
