A cryptocurrency wallet belonging to the now-shuttered crypto exchange BTC-e just moved 10,000 bitcoin (BTC), currently worth over $165 million, to various exchanges, personal wallets, and other sources. on November 23.
A Chainalysis report on Nov. 23 suggested that while this withdrawal is the largest by BTC-e since April 2018, both BTC-e and WEX – an exchange believed to be the successor to BTC-e – sent small amounts of BTC to Russian electronic payment service Webmoney on Oct. 26, before making a test payment on Nov. 11, and then transfer another 100 BTC on November 21.
Of the total amount sent, 9,950 BTC is believed to still be in personal wallets, while the rest moved through intermediaries before ending up at four deposit addresses on two large exchanges.
The co-founder and CEO of blockchain analytics firm Cryptoquant, Ki Young Ju also verified the findings, noting that 0.6% of the funds were sent to exchanges and may represent sell-side liquidity.
In a tweet on November 24, Young Ju shared images of the transfer noting that the BTC had been in the wallet for over seven years.
7-year-old 10,000 $BTC moved today.
No surprise, it’s from criminals, like most of the old Bitcoins. It’s the BTC-e exchange wallet related to the 2014 Mt. Gox hack.
They sent 65 BTC to @hitbtc a few hours ago, so it’s not a gov auction or something. https://t.co/6LnCxFAJfX https://t.co/YdPrvJafxY pic.twitter.com/Sp2higUqbq
— Ki Young Ju (@ki_young_ju) November 24, 2022
Today 10,000 BTC have been moved with 7 years old. Not a surprise, it’s from criminals, like most old bitcoins. It’s the wallet from the BTC-e exchange, related to the 2014 Mt. Gox hack. They sent 65 BTC to @hitbtc a few hours ago, so it’s not a government auction or anything.
Young Ju also mentioned that 65 BTC had been transferred to the HitBTC crypto exchange and asked them to suspend the account for suspicious activity.
Mt. Gox was a Tokyo-based crypto exchange that once accounted for more than 70% of bitcoin transactions. In 2014, the exchange was hacked, stealing thousands of bitcoin, and the exchange filed for bankruptcy soon after.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2017 shut down the website and seized the funds from BTC-e, which had its servers located in the United States, after allegations that it was involved in money laundering, including the cryptocurrencies stolen during the Mt. Gox hack.
According to Chainalysis, at the time of its shutdown, BTC-e still held “a substantial amount of bitcoin,” and in April 2018 it moved more than 30,000 BTC out of its service wallet.
While the owners of BTC-e have tried to remain anonymous, Alexander Vinnik is believed to be the main operator. and has been embroiled in legal battles for the past five years as a result.
A WizSecurity report published in 2017 alleged that BTC-e and Vinnik were directly implicated in the theft of Mt. Gox bitcoin and user funds, and the latter was forced to suspend operations and shut down its website following the losses.
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