That means it will be very difficult for thieves to get away with their profits in spendable form without being identified, said Michelle Lai, a crypto privacy advocate, investor and consultant. said she was tracking the movements of stolen FTX funds with “sick enchantment.” But the real question, Lai said, is whether identifying the thieves offers any measure: After all, many of the most famous crypto thieves are Russians or active North Koreans. in non-extradition countries, beyond the reach of Western law enforcement. “The issue is not whether they know who did it. The question is whether it’s feasible or not,” Lai said. “Will they be on the shore?”
Meanwhile, Lai and many other crypto watchers have been watching closely an Ethereum address currently holds approximately $192 million worth of funds. The account sent small amounts of Ethereum-based tokens—some of which appear to have little or no value—to multiple exchange accounts, as well as Ethereum inventor Vitalik Buterin and crypto fundraising accounts. Ukrainian death. But Lai speculates that these transactions may simply complicate the picture for law enforcement or other observers before any real attempt at money laundering or withdrawal.
The theft of FTX — whether the theft totaled $338 million or $477 million — hardly represents an unprecedented theft in the crypto-crime world. During the Ronin Bridge hack in late March, an in-game cryptocurrency exchange, North Korean robbers took $ 540 million. And earlier this year, crypto tracing led to the bankruptcy of a New York couple accused of laundering $4.5 Billion in cryptocurrency.
But in the event of the famous FTX heist and the general demise of the exchange, tracing the wrongful amount could help quell—or confirm—the suspicions that someone in FTX is responsible. theft duty. The company’s Bahamas-based chief executive, Sam Bankman-Fried, who stepped down on Friday, almost lost his entire $16 billion fortune in the crash. According to a Unconfirmed report from CoinTelegraph, he and two other FTX executives are “under surveillance” in the Bahamas, preventing them from leaving the country. Reuters also reported last weekend that Bankman-Fried there is a “back door” integrated into FTX’s compliance system, allowing him to withdraw funds without notifying the rest of the company.
Despite those doubts, Janczewski of TRM Labs points out that the chaos of the FTX crisis may have created an opportunity for hackers to take advantage of panicking employees and trick them, such as clicking an email. cheat. Or, as Michelle Lai notes, bankrupt insiders may have teamed up with hackers as a means of getting back some of their own lost assets.
As questions arose as to whether FTX’s management could be responsible for the theft, the case began to resemble any recent crypto theft, a very old one. : the theft of half a billion dollars worth of bitcoin, discovered in 2014, from Mt. Gox, the first cryptocurrency exchange. In that case, blockchain analysis performed by crypto tracing firm Chainalysis, along with law enforcement, helped identify the theft by external hackers rather than Mt employees. . Gox. Finally, Alexander Vinnik, a Russian man, was arrested in Greece in 2017 and later found guilty of laundering Mt. Gox was stolen, vindication of the executives of Mt. Gox.
Whether history will repeat itself and whether crypto tracing will prove the innocence of FTX employees remains unclear. But more eyes than ever are scouring the blockchains of the crypto economy, it is certain that the person behind the FTX heist will sooner or later provide the answer.
