Four-Year Anniversary of Bitfinex Hack, and $12M of Stolen BTC Moved

Hackers transferred roughly $12M from wallets connected to the Bitfinex breach, in which 120,000 Bitcoin was stolen in August 2016
Hackers transferred roughly $12M from wallets connected to the Bitfinex breach, in which 120,000 Bitcoin was stolen in August 2016

Someone with access to the 119,756 Bitcoin stolen from crypto exchange Bitfinex in 2016 moved $12 million to unknown wallets in the last six days.

According to a series of tweets posted by Whale Alert on August 3, wallet addresses known to be associated with one of the largest breaches ever of a crypto exchange moved 620 Bitcoin (BTC) — worth roughly $7 million at the time of writing — over 4 transactions. On July 29, nearly $5 million — or 448 BTC — was moved in a single transaction.

Coupled with the recent movement of $39 million from July 27-28, this makes approximately $51 million in Bitcoin transferred over 17 transactions within a week.

Four years later

On August 2, 2016, hackers breached security at Bitfinex, stealing 119,756 BTC — $72 million at the time. After four years and recent bullish behavior, their total haul is now worth $1.3 billion.

However, despite the recent $51 million movement, those responsible for the hack have moved only 1-2% of the funds they stole. This suggests that the criminals may be having difficulties as new anti-money laundering (AML) regulations are enforced. 

Crypto exchanges hacked in Europe

Cointelegraph recently reported that hackers got away with $1.39 million from European crypto trading platform 2gether on July 31. In addition, U.K.-based cryptocurrency exchange Cashaa was the victim of a cyberattack on July 10. Hackers stole more than 336 BTC, or $3.7 million at the time of press.