Funds stolen from FTX exchange are being converted and exchanges have been warned to keep their eyes peeled.
It appears that the worst is yet to be heard of the controversial collapse and bankruptcy of the FTX exchange. This follows after an unknown bad actor dubiously obtained 228,523 ETH from the exchange. As of publication, the stolen FTX funds were worth well over $268 million. Thereby, making the thief one of the largest ETH holders in the world.
Stolen FTX Funds Are Already Being Converted – Chainalysis
Meanwhile, as soon as the funds turned up missing, earlier reports suggested that they were safely in the hands of the Securities Commission of The Bahamas. Blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, however, has been quick to dispel those claims, calling them untrue. While it confirms that some funds are truly in the custody of regulators, it also insists that some were stolen.
Furthermore, the American-based firm explains that the stolen FTX funds are now being converted from ETH into Bitcoin. Chainalysis shared this via a Sunday Twitter thread as it attempted to keep exchanges aware of the hacker’s potential next move. The post reads in part:
“Funds stolen from FTX are on the move and exchanges should be on high alert to freeze them if the hacker attempts to cash out.”
Interestingly, the hacker has already made some moves to conceal some of the stolen assets. At least, no less than 45,000 ETH had been swapped to wrapped BTC as of press time. These wrapped BTCs have also been redeemed for a total of 3,548.54 native BTCs.
ETH Price Unable to Withstand Selling Pressure
As the hacker relentlessly continues swapping their ETH stack for BTC, there is an untold amount of pressure on ETH price. The price has dropped by over 7% since the selling began. It has fallen below $1,200 and is currently trading at around $1,131, per CoinMarketCap data.
For now, though, the identity of the FTX funds hacker remains unknown. But there are some speculations along the line that this may just have been an inside job.
Recall that in 2021, the trading arm of FTX – Alameda Research announced a partnership with Ren’s development team. This may be the reason for the speculations, considering that the hacker continues to use renBTC in his conversions.
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