When the Bitfinex hack occurred, it was one of the most widely publicized hacks. Bitcoin was still in its early stages at the time, and even years later, it was still hurting from the Mt Gox shutdown. When the incident occurred, the attackers had successfully stolen 119,756 BTC. Over time, they had gradually moved out of the hoard, but the biggest transfer came later when the hackers moved $3.8 billion in bitcoin.
Hackers Transfer 10,000 BTC
Bitfinex hackers transferred 10,000 BTC from a cache that has been there since 2016. There have been earlier transfers of BTC from wallets, but this is the largest in terms of dollar value that has left the account.
Whale Alert, a bot that watches blockchain transactions and alerts users when massive transactions occur, noted this shift. The entire worth of the bitcoin moved by the Bitfinex attackers totaled over $4 billion.
The remaining bitcoins are still in the wallet to which they were moved following the breach. Although the wallet is essentially ‘marked,’ innovations in the space could ultimately let the hackers ‘clean’ the stolen BTC and be able to spend it without fear of being traced.
Recently, hackers have been exploiting services such as Tornado Cash to dispose of ‘dirty’ cryptocurrency stolen from crypto projects. Because it is still an unknown wallet, it is unclear where the Bitfinex hackers are sending the BTC.
Is the Bitcoin price about to plummet?
Bitcoin’s price has increased dramatically since its low in 2016. Around the time of the Bitfinex hack, the price of Bitcoin was still under $300. A single bitcoin is now worth $38,000, significantly increasing the value of the stolen bitcoin.
The digital asset’s price, which peaked at $69,000, has aided the value of the BTC. However, the hackers continue to keep the majority of the bitcoin in the wallet, probably because they are unable to spend it.
It is believed that if the attackers are able to dump all of their bitcoin on the market, it will have a negative impact on the price direction of the cryptocurrency. With Mt Gox compensations on the horizon, as well as Fed decisions, BTC and the crypto market could be in for more losses. But, for the time being, the price of bitcoin remains stable at $38,300.
