Bitfinex hackers move more than $27 million tied to 2016 attack
Whale Alert, a Twitter-based tracker of large cryptocurrency transactions, reported nine transfers of funds tied to the 2016 hack of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex.
Bitfinex was hacked in August 2016, and the security breach resulted in the theft of almost 120,000 BTC — an amount valued at $72 million at then-current prices. The exchange later moved to socialize that loss among its user base and create a token to as a means to reimburse those affected. Bitfinex bought back the last of the so-called BFX tokens in April 2017.
Since the hack, blockchain sleuths have tracked the movement of the stolen coins. On Monday, four Whale Alert pings were posted at 12:41 p.m. ET after a combined 531.93 BTC (approximately $5.76 million) was transferred.
⚠ 174.44 #BTC (1,815,092 USD) of stolen funds transferred from Bitfinex Hack 2016 to unknown wallet
Tx: https://t.co/VA64OqmQKT— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) July 27, 2020
⚠ 86.266727 #BTC (897,606 USD) of stolen funds transferred from Bitfinex Hack 2016 to unknown wallet
Tx: https://t.co/3AGWw3LMve— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) July 27, 2020
⚠ 183.55 #BTC (1,909,875 USD) of stolen funds transferred from Bitfinex Hack 2016 to unknown wallet
Tx: https://t.co/JfeLVTAoEA— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) July 27, 2020
⚠ 87.673599 #BTC (912,245 USD) of stolen funds transferred from Bitfinex Hack 2016 to unknown wallet
Tx: https://t.co/IcudHwVvE7— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) July 27, 2020
Over an hour later, at 1:49 p.m. ET, Whale Alert posted five more alerts for transactions totaling 2018.69 BTC (approximately $21.98 million).
⚠ 473.32 #BTC (5,114,905 USD) of stolen funds transferred from Bitfinex Hack 2016 to unknown wallet
Tx: https://t.co/btmsjyT1iN— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) July 27, 2020
⚠ 448.72 #BTC (4,849,029 USD) of stolen funds transferred from Bitfinex Hack 2016 to unknown wallet
Tx: https://t.co/UEPfmH0uEk— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) July 27, 2020
⚠ 476.32 #BTC (5,147,316 USD) of stolen funds transferred from Bitfinex Hack 2016 to unknown wallet
Tx: https://t.co/2kqzfoYIA1— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) July 27, 2020
⚠ 320.34 #BTC (3,461,772 USD) of stolen funds transferred from Bitfinex Hack 2016 to unknown wallet
Tx: https://t.co/pUmYvGWtdD— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) July 27, 2020
⚠ 299.99 #BTC (3,241,798 USD) of stolen funds transferred from Bitfinex Hack 2016 to unknown wallet
Tx: https://t.co/3A8893y1b5— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) July 27, 2020
As reported by Whale Alert, two fund transfers totaling nearly $5 million in BTC at then-current prices were moved on June 24.
June 10 saw a total of 20 transactions take place, in amounts ranging from about $149,000 to more than $300,000.