Bitfinex

Hackers apparently steal $20m from US government wallets

Published

4 weeks ago

October 25, 2024

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U.S. government crypto wallets may be compromised, as observers alerted the public to suspicious on-chain transactions.

According to Arkham, unknown hackers have possibly stolen $20 million in seized cryptocurrencies like Ethereum (ETH), Tether (USDT), and Circle USD Coin (USDC) from U.S. government-controlled addresses.

The developing story, corroborated by on-chain sleuth ZachXBT on Telegram, might even involve funds confiscated from the Bitfinex hackers. Arkham stated that address 0xc9E received seized assets from at least one wallet mentioned in the Bitfinex court case documents.

𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: 𝗨𝗦 𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 $𝟮𝟬𝗠.
$20M in USDC, USDT, aUSDC and ETH has been suspiciously moved from a USG-linked address 0xc9E6E51C7dA9FF1198fdC5b3369EfeDA9b19C34c to… pic.twitter.com/UXn1atE1Wx
— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) October 24, 2024

Bitfinex was hacked in 2016 by Ilya Lichtenstein and his rapper partner Heather Morgan, AKA Razzlekhan. The duo successfully stole about $8 billion in Bitcoin (BTC) from the crypto exchange. Nearly a decade later, federal prosecutors asked for a five-year sentence to be issued to Lichtenstein.

Transactions suggest the hackers started selling and laundering the funds after breaking into U.S. government wallets, Arkham said in its Oct. 24 post about the suspicious activity.

The funds were moved to wallet 0x348 which has begun selling the funds to ETH. We believe the attacker has already begun laundering the proceeds through suspicious addresses linked to a money laundering service.
Arkham

Before the blockchain analytics provider flagged the U.S. government transactions, Arkham noted that government wallets withdrew over $6.5 million in crypto from decentralized finance lender Aave. Etherscan data also showed that one U.S. government address paid up to $1,000 in Ethereum fees to move about $100,000 in cryptocurrencies.

This is a developing story.

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Bitcoin

Bitcoin price may consolidate as $2.2b options expiry looms, analysts warn

Published

4 months ago

July 29, 2024

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As Bitcoin flirted with the $70,000 mark on Monday morning, analysts at Bitfinex issued a cautionary note, suggesting the rally might be short-lived due to an impending significant options expiry.

Bitfinex analysts predicted in a note that they expect “potential further downward pressure” on the price of Bitcoin (BTC) as the monthly expiry of around $2.2 billion is set to occur on Aug. 2.

They suggest this event could cause Bitcoin to stall or even pull back slightly from the $68,000-$69,000 resistance zone. Despite the risk of a pullback, the analysts highlight that leveraged long positions are currently more influential than spot market activities.

“[…] thus while the market is in a firm higher timeframe uptrend, a short-term price decline or range is likely, and if the options market positioning is any indication, directional trades, especially leveraged should be avoided,” Bitfinex noted.

On Monday morning, Bitcoin briefly traded at $70,000, a level not seen since June 7, before losing all momentum and trading below $67,000 by the afternoon trading session.

Broader macroeconomic environment

Regarding the broader macroeconomic environment, Bitfinex analysts described the economic outlook as “cautiously optimistic.” They highlighted that the housing market remains a “drag on growth” due to higher-than-expected median house prices affecting existing home sales.

As previously reported by crypto.news, July has historically been a positive month for Bitcoin. This year, the cryptocurrency gained over 15% in the last 30 days and recorded more than $19 billion in year-to-date inflows, marking a new record. Data from CoinShares shows Bitcoin products received nearly $520 million in capital between July 22 and July 26, pushing Bitcoin’s inflows past the $3.6 billion mark for the year.

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