Bitfinex hack awakens as funds being transferred to a different wallet

Bitfinex is one of the popular crypto platforms which had faced a massive hack in 2016. Recently, $3.6 billion in BTC from the hack has been consolidated into a single address. The funds were moved and consolidated into a single wallet following 23 transfers. At press time, the $3.6 billion in BTC remained idle. Following the recent developments, the trading platform claimed that it continues to work globally with law enforcement agencies in regard to the matter.

79%+ Bitcoins hacked in 2016 are in one address

On Tuesday, stolen Bitfinex cryptocurrencies were transferred to a new wallet. Notably, after 23 transactions, now the wallet address is holding approximately 94,643 coins. The misappropriated stash of Bitcoins is worth more than $3.6 billion at press time, as per the current exchange value.

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Among the transactions, the biggest that was detected was about 10k Bitcoins which is worth 383 million. Besides the other transactions amounted to as low as 0.29 coins. Indeed, the wallet address that received the blacklisted flagship cryptocurrency is now holding a total of more than 94k coins, which is worth $3.6 billion.

Moreover we have also observed that the first transaction of the flagship cryptocurrency took place at 4:15 am Tuesday UTC. Besides, the last transaction took place at 9:33 am UTC.

What do the hackers are trying to do?

According to experts observing the event closely, it is yet a difficult task to note the exact purpose, why the hackers took such steps. Last year, the hackers moved 10k of the total stolen amounts.

According to a Twitter user Alistait Milne, hypotheses that the hackers are unable to cash out. However, the movement of the funds is to induce market panic hypothesized as the malicious actors took such measures to induce market panic while having short positions. Although the hackers cannot sell the funds, moving the crypto coins would manipulate the markets.

Bitcoin price performance

The last time hackers moved coins was ehn BTC. At the time when the hackers moved the funds the coin design by Satoshi Nakamoto was trading at $64k. At the time, the Gold Found In Sand (GFIS) cited that the awakening was done in purpose to dumb the price of the assets.