Bitcoin stolen from Bitfinex in 2016 is on the move. Earlier today, a combined 172.54 BTC ($1.37 million) was mysteriously sent from the hacker’s wallets to an unknown address.
Bitfinex’ marketing director Anneka Dew however told Hard Fork that today’s movements had nothing to do with the company at all.
The set of five transfers began at approximately 07:00AM UTC, June 7, and was shared by Twitter-based transaction monitor @whale_alert.
The circumstances surrounding the set of eery transactions aren’t yet clear. Curiously, Twitter users highlighted a section from the white paper for Bitfinex’ new LEO token that appears to foreshadow these kinds of movements.
“[…] [Bitfinex] is working with industry leaders to create a procedure to offer the hacker the chance to safely and privately refund the majority of the stolen funds while keeping a percentage of them as reward for collaborating in finally resolving this issue,” states the white paper.
“We are not involved, and the movement is not tied to the procedure outlined in the UNUS SED LEO white paper,” confirmed Dew in an email to Hard Fork.
Three years ago, hackers successfully made off with 119,756 BTC held on Bitfinex. At the time, that amount was worth $350 million, but today it’s valued at roughly $1.1 billion.
In February this year, Bitfinex confirmed US law enforcement retrieved a small percentage of the stolen Bitcoin (22.66 BTC, then worth $104,000). To date, the overwhelming majority of funds remains missing.
At pixel time, it appears the transfers have stopped. As this is an ongoing story, Hard Fork will continue to monitor the situation and report as it develops.
Update 18 June, 09:00 UTC: This piece has been edited to correct the value of Bitfinex’ stolen funds, which are currently worth around $1.1 billion. We apologize for the mistake.
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