In just 24 hours, almost $13 million has been transferred to the consolidation wallet of bankrupt cryptocurrency trading firm Alameda Research, revealed data from blockchain security firm PeckShield on February 2.
The address received $6 million worth of Tether (USDT) and $2.5 million worth of Ether (ETH) from exchange Bitfinex hot wallet, along with $4.5 million worth of USD Coin (USDC) from an anonymous source and 30,000 Lido tokens worth about $65,500.
#PeckShieldAlert ~$13M worth of cryptos have been transferred to Alameda consolidation-labeled address, including ~6M $USDT &1,545 $ETH ($2.5M) from Bitfinex, ~4.6M $USDC from 0x7889
Wondering why Bitfinex transferred ~$8.5M worth of cryptos to Alameda consolidation address pic.twitter.com/YU8RNcrdxs— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) February 2, 2023
The transfer of the asset is considered part of the recovery efforts associated with the bankruptcy proceedings. A Bitfinex spokesperson told Cointelegraph that Alameda had an account with Bitfinex and that the exchange is working with the liquidators to repay the remaining funds.
Alameda filed for bankruptcy on November 11, along with 130 other companies controlled by the FTX Group. Since then, his consolidation wallet has seen deposits from various addresses, accumulating over $26 million in ETH and $183 million in other altcoins, including $54 million in BitDAO tokens.
The amount recovered, however, could be much higher, since the liquidators would have suffered at least USD 11.5 million in losses -some of them avoidable- since they took control of Alameda’s trading accounts, according to a report from the cryptocurrency analytics firm; Arkham Intelligence.
The liquidators faced another technical hurdle trying to recover funds on January 12. Cointelegraph reported the loss of $72,000 worth of digital assets on decentralized finance (DeFi) lending platform Aave, while the liquidators tried to consolidate the funds into a single multi-signature wallet.
To close a debit position in Aave, the liquidators withdrew additional collateral, putting the assets at risk of liquidation. Also, according to various reports, the liquidators spent much more in gas fees than they made moving the funds.
Alameda Research nearly collapsed in 2018 before FTX came into play, according to new reports citing former employees. The firm’s algorithm was designed to perform a large number of automated and fast trades, but was inefficient at predicting price movements.
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