Crypto Wallet Tied to $600 Million FTX Hack Transfers $26 Million Ether After Almost A Year Dormant

Updated: 02 October 2023

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A crypto wallet tied to the $600 million exploit of FTX last year has become active after close to a year of dormancy and moved 15,000 Ether worth almost $26 million.

The wallet started moving 2500 ETH worth on the morning of September 30, sending some funds back into circulation.

However, in a matter of 24 hours after the first transfer, the wallet had moved more than 10,250 ETH. Currently, all the ETH has been transferred, according to a CoinDesk report, most of which has been moved through the Thorchain router.

FTX Hacker Launders 15000 ETH

Hours after FTX and its affiliated companies declared bankruptcy in November 2022, an unidentified hacker exploited the platform for as much as $600 million from numerous accounts.

Until early this weekend, 15,000 ETH, or $26 million, were held in a single wallet. However, the first tranche of 2,500 ETH worth about $4 million started moving and being distributed through various channels.

The crypto was divided into two and then transferred several times in subsequent transactions. Out of 2,500 ETH, 700 ETH was moved through the Thorchain Router while around 1,200 ETH was moved through the Railgun privacy tool. An additional 550 ETH was routed to an intermediate wallet.

🚨 FTX Exploiter 0x3e9 has transferred out a total of 10,250 $ETH ($17.1M) via 5 addresses over the past 24 hours:

– sent 7,749 $ETH ($13M) to the Thorchain router and Railgun contract

– swapped 2,500 $ETH ($4.19M) to 153.4 $tBTC at $27,281 on avg

Notably, the address has been… https://t.co/xzmDz8Vmma pic.twitter.com/4Ykp0zih6G

— Spot On Chain (@spotonchain) October 1, 2023

The stolen FTX funds are likely to have been laundered given the hacker’s choice of distribution channels. Railgun is a privacy wallet that allows users to store tokens and use funds for decentralized financial services, such as lending and borrowing. Given that these transactions are protected, the precise purpose and use of such funds are not usually known.

On the other hand, Thorchain is a bridge that lets users swap tokens between different blockchains without the fear of getting their transfers blocked. Based on data from Etherscan, the hacker sent over 6,000 ETH to the bridge as part of his laundering efforts.

Additional swaps used the decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch to convert 2,500 ETH worth almost $4 million into Bitcoin while some of the remaining funds were sent to a contract labeled “Metamask: Swap Router.”

Despite being able to observe the funds being moved, investors, creditors, and prosecutors are still unable to identify the hacker(s). And considering the methods used to launder and transfer the funds, any opportunity to recover them is slowly slipping away.

Sam Bankman-Fried Prepares For Trial

This development comes as former FTX CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, prepares himself for criminal trial on October 3 following his involvement in the collapse of what was once among the top crypto exchanges.

Bankman-Fried is currently facing seven charges, including two primary allegations and five conspiracy charges. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and is currently detained as he awaits tria in jail, despite several attempts by his lawyers to get him temporarily released to prepare for the trial.

Bankman-Fried is also scheduled to go on trial again in March next year in connection with five more charges.

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