By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 19th, 2024
As the bankruptcy proceedings take shape, chances are that these current withdrawals will be investigated and thanks to on-chain data, the flow of funds can easily be tracked.
Alameda Research, the defunct trading firm belonging to the Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former Chief Executive Officer of bankrupt cryptocurrency trading platform, FTX Derivatives Exchange came alive a few nights ago as several assets were consolidated and liquidated.
According to updates posted by Arkham Intelligence, the wallets belonging to Alameda Research had not been used to post any transaction in over 4 weeks until the latest flagged transactions.
“Sharp-eyed users may have noticed a number of interesting movements from Alameda wallets in the past 24 hours. These wallets had been inactive for multiple weeks before they ‘woke up’ last night. Over $1M has been sent through crypto-mixers by Alameda wallets,” Arkham Intelligence said in a tweet on Wednesday, adding that “The final transactions made by tagged Alameda Research wallets occurred on December 1st, almost 4 weeks ago. Since then the wallets were silent, until ~24 hours ago. At which point, multiple Alameda addresses began to swap tokens for ETH/USDT, sending them to crypto mixers.”
As pointed out by the outfit, Ethereum-based digital currencies including DAI, Curve (CRV), Ethereum (ETH), and USDC were sent from several of the company’s wallets to the 0x64e wallet. From here, the funds were moved to active crypto mixers including ChangeNow and Fixedfloat.
To Arkham Intelligence, the extensive nature of the liquidations perhaps showed that someone order than a regular employee might be involved in the liquidations. Whether or not the person is a hacker remains unknown but in total, as many as 30 wallets have been identified in the asset consolidation.
The crypto intelligence provider noted that Altogether, there has been more than “270.5Eth through ChangeNOW (~$325k)..800k USDT through Fixedfloat…200k through Curve SynthSwap (to native BTC)…200k through Airswap…200k through other crypto-mixing services,” all reaching a total of $1.7 million.
Are the Alameda Research Liquidations Sanctioned by SBF?
With the assets of Alameda Research also embroiled in bankruptcy proceedings with the rest of the entities linked to FTX Exchange, chances are that this current liquidation is sanctioned by Sam Bankman-Fried who has been on house arrest in the United States since he was granted a $250 million bail bond.
Though he is free in his parent’s house, for the time being, his freedom is limited, and consolidating funds from multiple wallets in a highly monitored firm does not seem likely.
FTX is not alien to cyberattacks as more than $370 million were allegedly hacked from the firm at the time it filed for bankruptcy. The suspicion of a cyberattack hinged on this current liquidation of funds from the exchange is the most tenable explanation as both SBF and Caroline Ellison, the CEO who managed Alameda Research prior to its collapse are also under the authority’s radar.
As the bankruptcy proceedings take shape, chances are that these current withdrawals will be investigated and thanks to on-chain data, the flow of funds can easily be tracked.