Around 2,550 bitcoins from the 2016 hack on the popular cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex have mysteriously started moving again, with the hackers making a series of transfers to other wallets.
In total, the hackers moved bitcoin worth around $27.59 million. The transactions were quickly spotted by Twitter-based crypto transaction tracker Whale Alert, and blockchain sleuths quickly started working on tracking where the funds were going to.
Over a series of transactions, the hackers moved to funds to other addresses they control, and don’t appear to have tried to move the funds to any cryptocurrency exchanges. Bitfinex has, according to Finance Magnates, confirmed these transactions have nothing to do with its processes.
Bitfinex was hacked in 2016, as hackers managed to siphon 119,756 BTC out of its wallets. At the time the bitcoins were worth about $72 million, but are now worth over $1.3 billion. After the hack, the cryptocurrency exchange socialized the losses amongst its users, to the tune of 36% of their balances.
It then distributed BFX tokens to their users to later buy them back from their accounts and reimburse users for their losses. The last BFX token was redeemed in 2017, even though the majority of the stolen BTC is still missing. After investigating the case, authorities have only managed to recover less than 23 BTC.
On the whitepaper of its LEO cryptocurrency, Bitfinex appeared to give the hacker a chance to return the funds, while keeping a specific percentage as a “reward for collaborating in finally resolving this issue.”
The exchange has so far claimed the hackers’ movements weren’t “tied to the procedure outlined in the UNUS SED LEO whitepaper.” In June 2019, authorities in Israel arrested two brothers allegedly involved in crypto phishing schemes and the Bitfinex hack.
Featured image via Pixabay.
