#FTX #Hacker Moves Over $38 Million Amid CEO's Legal Troubles
Over the past few days, the entity responsible for the suspicious withdrawal of funds from the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, commonly referred to as the "FTX hacker," has transferred an additional 7,500 #ETH (approximately $12.6 million).
According to the analytics firm Lookonchain, a total of 22,500 ETH (approximately $38 million) has been moved in the last two days. The FTX hacker currently holds over 163,000 ETH (approximately $275 million) across multiple wallets.
This transfer of funds by the FTX hacker coincides with the impending start of a trial against Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO and founder of the exchange, who is facing charges of fraud and money laundering, set to commence this Tuesday.
It's worth noting that the hacker activated the account back in 2022 when the new CEO, John Ray III, revealed unauthorized access to certain assets. According to blockchain analytics company Elliptic, FTX experienced the theft of around $477 million worth of cryptocurrencies.
The stolen funds were converted into various digital coins, with a significant portion (over $280 million) exchanged for ETH, according to publicly available blockchain records tied to the hackers.
Tom Robinson, the co-founder of Elliptic, stated that the hackers converted ETH into a crypto product called RenBTC, which was then converted into Bitcoins through a bridge. This method allowed them to convert one cryptocurrency into another without a centralized exchange.
Researchers at Elliptic documented how RenBridge was used to launder "hundreds of millions" of dollars in cryptocurrency, likely obtained from ransomware attacks or hacking incidents. According to Elliptic, some of these hackers have ties to Russia-backed ransomware groups.
Messages in the FTX Telegram thread indicated that the application and platform were compromised and hacked. The software development company confirmed that hackers were moving funds.
Please note that this information is subject to change as the situation develops further.
