FTX Hacker Moves Millions in Stolen Ethereum as FTX’s Former CEO Faces Trial
Crypto News – The individual or group responsible for suspicious withdrawals from the defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, often referred to as the “FTX hacker,” recently moved 7,500 ether (equivalent to $12.6 million).
According to analysis by Lookonchain, this entity transferred a total of 22,500 ETH (approximately $38 million) over the past 48 hours. This included a movement of 2,500 ether (about $4 million) on Saturday, involving swapping ether for bitcoin through Thorchain and Railgun, as reported by The Block.
The FTX hacker now holds more than 163,000 ETH (approximately $275 million) across multiple wallets, as highlighted by Lookonchain.
This movement of funds by the FTX hacker coincides with the approaching trial of the exchange’s former CEO and founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, facing charges of fraud and money laundering scheduled to commence this coming Tuesday.
FTX, once a prominent centralized exchange, fell victim to one of the largest hacks in 2022. An unidentified hacker made off with a significant amount of crypto assets from the exchange’s wallets shortly after Bankman-Fried filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and left the company. The losses were estimated to exceed $350 million, according to a report by analytics firm Chainalysis.
In December 2022, the U.S. Justice Department announced an investigation to identify the individual or group behind the hack.
While the hacker’s identity remains unknown, Bankman-Fried suggested in an interview that an insider, potentially a “former employee” or another malicious actor, might have obtained the private keys to FTX’s crypto wallets.
John J. Ray III, who assumed the role of CEO of FTX after its downfall in November 2022, revealed in a prepared testimony that FTX kept the private keys to its wallets unencrypted and utilized inadequate security measures. These circumstances might have contributed to the exploitability of the hack.
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