On October 24, more than $20 million in crypto was moved from a wallet under US government control, raising concerns about a possible theft.
The assets, seized from the infamous Bitfinex
$172.54M
hack, were transferred to a new address just five days old, beginning with “0x348.”
Arkham Intelligence reported that this address received $13.7 million in aUSDC, $5.5 million in USD Coin
$0.9985
, $1.25 million in Tether
$0.9973
, and $446,000 in Ethereum
$2,475.02
.
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These transfers caught the attention of ZachXBT, a well-known anonymous blockchain investigator. Describing the activity as “nefarious,” he suggested that the funds might have been stolen.
The recipient wallet used 1inch, a DEX aggregator, to convert the stablecoins into Ethereum, which was later sent to instant exchanges like N Exchange , Switchain, and a “nested exchange” that relies on Binance for liquidity.
The 2016 Bitfinex hack, where these assets were confiscated from, was one of the largest crypto heists in history. The perpetrators, Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, are a married couple from New York City who later admitted to money laundering conspiracies. Prosecutors are currently seeking a five-year prison sentence for Lichtenstein due to his significant involvement in the crime and other related offenses, while Morgan faces an 18-month jail term.
Gode is a Web3 Market Analyst who researches the most important industry events and interprets how they affect the wider Web3 space. Her formal education in media culture & digital rhetoric allows her to employ a methodical approach to evaluating critical Web3 news data, including large-scale events and the wider social sentiment within the ecosystem.Gode is a mutilingual professional, having studied in multiple universities all across Europe. This allows her to have a one-of-a-kind opportunity to analyze Web3 social sentiments spanning different cultures and languages and, in turn, develop a much deeper understanding of how the Web3 space is growing within different communities. With the rest of her team, Gode works to identify crucial crypto news patterns and provide unbiased and data-driven information.Gode’s passions include working and communicating with people, and when she’s not researching Web3 news, she spends her time traveling and watching true crime documentaries.
