On July 27, about $38.7 million was transferred from a wallet involved in a 2016 Bitcoin heist.
In 2016, hackers stole 119,756 Bitcoins (now worth over $1.3 billion) from crypto exchange Bitfinex. On Monday and Tuesday, July 27-28, Whale Alert tweeted that part of the funds were transferred to unknown wallets in a number transactions. Whale Alert tracks large crypto exchanges across several blockchains.
The transactions, 12 of them, originated from a wallet address that is known to have been involved in the 2016 hack. The largest transaction among them was one where 476.32 BTC, worth about $5.2 million was moved. The smallest transfer was roughly 2.6 BTC (about $29,000).
Although the billion-dollar hack occurred four years ago, most of the funds are largely untouched. It is estimated that only 2% of the stolen funds have been moved, suggesting that the holders are simply hodling. Given Bitcoin’s steady growth over the years, the strategy has been rewarding for the hackers. Originally, the heist was worth about $72 million. Today, it has ballooned to $1.3 billion and growing.
It is also possible that the hackers are finding it difficult to cash out the haul due to increasing global crypto regulations.
In May, Bitfinex launched a perpetual contract to speculate Bitcoin’s dominance. The product is called Bitfinex Derivatives’ Bitcoin Dominance Perpetual Swap (BTCDOM).
Image Credits: Pixabay
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