Elliptic "The person behind the #FTX hacking is believed to be a Russian-linked organization"
Blockchain analysis company Elliptic announced on the 12th (local time) that there is a high possibility that a Russian organization was behind the exchange hacking incident that occurred during the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX last year.
Elliptic made this estimate by revealing a detailed timeline of the on-chain movement of stolen assets.
Most of the assets stolen from FTX were moved to Bitcoin and passed through the mixing service 'ChipMixer', which makes tracking difficult.
Elliptic explained, "As a result of tracking, a significant portion of the stolen assets were sent to the exchange along with funds from Russian-linked criminal organizations such as ransomware and darknet markets," adding, "This suggests that brokers or other intermediaries related to Russia are involved." did.
The founder of FTX raised questions about internal suspicions that he had embezzled funds. The analysis firm said, “At 3:41 PM (EST) on the 4th of this month, when Bankman Fried was in court without internet access, $15 million in stolen cryptocurrency was moved from FTX.”
Hackers stole 9,500 ETH on November 11 last year, when FTX filed for bankruptcy protection, and subsequently stole assets totaling $477 million, including Pax Gold (PAXG), Tether (USDT), and Rapt Bitcoin (WBTC).
Although authorities succeeded in freezing some assets, most were swapped to other cryptocurrencies or moved to other blockchains within a matter of days. “This makes it more difficult for hackers to track assets and provides greater access to money laundering services,” Elliptic explained.
On November 20, the hacker transferred 65,000 ETH to Bitcoin using 'RenBridge', which is linked to FTX trading affiliate Alameda Research, and then transferred the funds to Chip Mixer. Chip Mixer was shut down by the U.S. Department of Justice earlier this year.
After 9 months, another 72,500 ETH was transferred to Bitcoin via THORSwap. TorSwap later discontinued the interface due to concerns about money laundering.
