Suspicious Activity: FTX Hacker Moves 22,500 ETH Worth $37 Million – What’s Going On?

In a series of concerning transactions, the hacker or group of hackers believed to be behind last year’s infamous FTX hack has moved millions of dollars’ worth of stolen crypto.

In the past few days, the so-called FTX hacker has transferred 22,500 Ether (ETH), equivalent to about $37 million by today’s exchange rate, according to a post on X from the on-chain analytics firm Lookonchain.

Out of the total, 7,500 ETH, worth approximately $12.4 million, was transferred as recently as on Monday.

FTX Accounts Drainer transferred 7,500 $ETH($12.62M) out again 1 hour ago.

The FTX Accounts Drainer has transferred 22,500 $ETH($38M) out in the past 2 days and currently has 163,235 $ETH($275M) left.https://t.co/YMSdqrSTxZ pic.twitter.com/dL6K47zC3n

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) October 1, 2023

Notably, these moves coincide with the impending trial of FTX’s former CEO and co-founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, who faces charges of fraud and money laundering.

Bankman-Fried faces more than 100 years in prison if found guilty on all counts.

One of 2022’s largest crypto heists

The hack that victimized FTX in 2022 was one of the year’s largest crypto heists, with losses estimated to exceed $350 million.

The attacker targeted the exchange’s wallets shortly after Bankman-Fried filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and left the company.

According to a Chainalysis report from last year, the drained funds were originally converted from Ether to Bitcoin (BTC) through RenBridge, a protocol that allows for decentralized cross-chain transfers between a number of different blockchains.

Inside job?

While the identity of the hacker remains unknown, Bankman-Fried has previously suggested in an interview that an insider, potentially a “former employee” or another malicious actor, might have gained access to FTX’s crypto wallets’ private keys.

This incident led to a US Justice Department investigation, aimed at uncovering the individual or group responsible for the hack.

Bankman-Fried’s successor as CEO, John J. Ray III, has previously revealed that FTX kept the private keys for its wallets private keys unencrypted and without adequate security measures in place.